PROJECT TITAN
by McKnight 2.0
Summary: When Nightwing is called in with a mission from the Justice League, he isn't expecting it to be them asking him to lead a team of young heroes. At first he refuses the offer, preferring to work alone but a certain Tameranian girl and dark oncoming circumstances may force him to change his mind.
1. Chapter 1

**So, I got this out pretty quickly. I'll probably update every weekend due to my schedule, but my goal for this story is for it to be the best I have ever written. And of course it's Dick x Kori story, but there will be other couples. Right now I'm seeing 40 chapters, but we'll see how it goes.**

* * *

I'm not Superman. I'm not Wonder Woman. I'm not the Flash. I don't have the strength to stop an asteroid from hitting the planet we call home. I can't fly faster than a speeding bullet. I can't run faster than sound. I have no super powers to speak of, but don't get me wrong. I am hero. The prodigy of probably the most feared man on the planet. The Batman. My name is Dick Grayson, the 19 year adopted son of Billionaire, Bruce Wayne and up until two and a half years ago I was the famed hero/side kick Robin, but I grew too big for Batman's massive shadow and struck out on my own in the city of Bludhaven, becoming the hero Nightwing. This is my story and my story alone... or at least it was supposed to be. Things change.

* * *

 **Dick's POV**

 **Thursday, September 9th -** **9:00 AM**

 **Dick's apartment**

 _Beep! Beep! Beep!_ The sound of my phone's nine o'cock alarm wakes me. I groan loudly as I roll over onto my stomach, my entire body aching as I do. I guess last night's patrol took more out of me than I thought it did, but in my defense I did stop Bane and about eight of his goons from smuggling drugs into Bludhaven without any assistance, so the soreness is understandable.

Normally I would lay in bed an extra thirty minutes or so after my alarm went off, but unfortunately it's Tuesday, which means I have and eleven o'clock criminology class later today, so I have to get up.

Sighing, I finally manage to get out of bed and am on my way to my small apartment's bathroom when I hear the phone buzz on the table beside my bed. I turn around to grab it, figuring it was just Wally, my best friend and the former Kid Flash, now having taken over for his uncle,Barry Allen, but am surprised to find that it isn't Wally who texted me, nor anyone else who I'd expect such as Babs, AKA Batgirl, or another one of my close friends. No, out of all people it could have been it was Bruce, otherwise known as the Dark Knight himself, though almost no one knew that to be the case. He trusted no one outside of very small list.

Now one might wonder why I'd find it odd to see a text from Bruce on my phone, but to understand that you would have to understand a big part of the last few years. You see, when I was ready to leave the Robin mantle behind and take on the Nightwing persona, Bruce told me I wasn't ready yet, that I still needed work, which I didn't believe in the least. I knew I was ready, so I left without his consent, moving to the crime filled city of Bludhaven and I began to clean it up, one criminal at a time. Within a year the crime rate had fallen dramatically, all of the low life scum in the city fearing the night, or rather, what they couldn't see in it.

I had done it. I had proved Bruce wrong. It was ironic really. I spent my entire childhood fighting for his acceptance, practically fueling myself on every small complement, and my biggest personal victory was overcoming the need for it. Even though it has been years since our fallout, our relationship never really recovered. We work together from time to time when the situation is too big for either of us to handle alone, AKA those rare shit hits the fan moments, but other than that, we don't talk.

Curiously, I read over the text. "Dick, please be at the office at eleven. My associates and I would like to discuss some important business matters with you." If a normal person read this text, they would think simply that Bruce wanted me to come in to Wayne Enterprises for a normal everyday business meeting, which is exactly what Bruce would want one to think if someone had intercepted the message or had my phone for whatever reason. What the text actually means is that he wants me to be at the Watch Tower, secret headquarters of the Justice League, to meet with him and it's top members about some sort of mission.

A mission from the Justice League is a pretty big deal, considering they're very picky about who they assign them to. I've been on a couple, which were both spy missions to gather intelligence on two prominent criminal organizations, my skill set fitting exactly what they needed for those. I imagine this is probably something similar to that.

Well, no class for me today, not that I'm complaining. Truthfully I'd rather be shot at by a gang of thugs or fight a super villain hell bent on world domination than sit in a boring lecture, so this is a relief if anything at all. Glancing at the clock, I decide it's time to get ready and head out. I hope whatever it is that they have for me that it's something good.

* * *

 **Dick's POV**

 **Thursday, September 9th - 10:50 AM**

 **The Watch Tower**

The Watch Tower, the home of the Justice League and a place where most individuals will never even learn of it's existence, let alone step a foot inside of it. I myself have only been here a handful of times, it usually only being for the members of the Justice League.

Although, my time here has been limited, I still know my way around enough to make it to the conference room, where all the meetings are typically held. I walk down the hallway, just of the tower's main room, before coming to a large set of metallic double doors, which I push open, but stop in my tracks once I enter the conference room.

I thought it was just going to be me here, but I am surprised that's it's not only myself, but four other heroes that I have grown up with as well. In a seat near the front of the room is Donna Troy. She is the younger sister of Wonder Woman and looks exactly like her, which means she is absolutely gorgeous. She was Wonder Girl for many years, but eventually left he sister's side and took up her own identity as Troia.

Next is Kal, better known as Aqualad. He's a tall, mixed teen, with blue eyes and a great smile. When we go out together outside of our uniforms, he gets almost as much attention as I do from girls. Almost.

Roy Harper, now Red Arrow, having left his Speedy moniker behind years ago, is near them. He's about my height, standing about 6'1 and has about the same muscular build as I do. Like me, he is a hero without powers, so we both have to be in insane shape to keep up with everyone else.

Finally there is of course Wally. I'm guessing he was called just like we were. Considering the Flash is no longer one of the seven most tenured members of the league, he has no other reason to be here.

I see that all of them are sitting across from their mentors, but I refuse to sit anywhere near batman, so instead I sit down across from the Flash. "What is this?" I whisper to him.

He shrugs. "Dude, I literally been apart of the Justice League less than a month. You think they tell me anything? I just got a text asking me to be here."

I nod. "Same." We look across the room at our peers and close friends, and all make eye contact, agreeing without words that none of us has the slightest clue as to why we have been called here. I'm guessing the only one's who know the answer to that are the top members in League, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, and Green Arrow, who replaced Flash on the council when Barry retired.

Superman, who sats at the head of the table, stands up, catching all of our attentions. "Thank all of you for coming. I'm sure you are all wondering why you have been called here today."

"Damn right," the Flash whispers under his breath.

"Heard that," Superman retorts, giving him a disproving look. Wally should remember that the man does have super hearing. "Anyway, we have an opportunity for all of you to make a difference if you choose to. Look around," he instructs, examining each person in the room. "Every single one of you have been trained by someone in the Justice League, and one day when all of us are old and unable to do this anymore, you all will take over for us and become the Justice League, but let me ask you a question. How many of you are there really? You five are the oldest, most experienced but who's after you? Superboy, Robin, Batgirl? That's it right? Eight of you. Can eight of you defend the entire world?

"I'm guessing the answer you're going for is no," Wally chimes in.

Superman looks over at him and frowns. "Yes, the answer is no." He then gets back on topic. "The Justice League is now close to thirty members strong and yet even we have struggled to defend Earth at times, so how can it be expected for eight of you to do it in the coming future? Hence is the reason we called you all here today." He turns to a projector and the white screen in the room is filled with light before the words 'PROJECT TITAN' fills the screen.

"The majority of Teenagers with powers and abilities are considered outcasts. They're bullied and shunned because they're are different than the normal population. They feel alone, depressed, have no one to turn to and no where to go. Project Titan will give us the ability to not only recruit young meta humans to train, but it will also keep them away from crime and give them a place to call home. The Project Titan's headquarters will be at Mount Justice and will serve as a forward operating base, just as the Watch Tower does for the league.

"So, where do we come in?" Red Arrows asks and surely enough it's a question we all have been wondering this entire time, at least I am.

Batman stands. "We want all of you to lead it. The idea is that younger meta humans are more likely to connect with and trust you, rather than us. We want you to not only train them to use their powers, but operate as a team as well. I will be in charge of assigning you missions, preparing you and them for your future responsibilities."

"So, wait," Flash begins. "We actually get to be in charge of something and boss people around? Yep, I'm in!"

"Hold up," Aqualad says, raising his hand to silence Flash. "Where would we even find participants for this? It's not as if meta humans are a common thing."

"We have already found them," Batman replies. "I have been keeping a file on every known meta human for the last five years." Of course he has, I think to myself. He wouldn't be Batman if he didn't. If only the rest of the league knew the files he had on them. "We have already contacted them and got them to agree to participate. The only thing now is we are just waiting on all of you to agree to spearhead the project."

He presses a button on the projector, changing it to the next slide, which a picture of a green colored teen with one fang protruding from under his upper lip. He wears a red and white full bodied suit and can't be any taller than 5'6. "Garfield Logan, AKA Beast Boy. He's a former member of the African based group, The doom patrol. Has the power to shape shift into any animal either present or past. Animals maintain green coloring when changed.

The next slide shows a picture of a paled skin girl in a blue cloak, her face mostly hidden by her hood. "Goes by only the name Raven. Has the power to manipulate dark energy, levitate, and see into others minds. Possible other powers. No other data is available currently." So, basically they know almost nothing about her, even Batman. Great.

The next slide shows the picture of a giant robot/human hybrid, standing at least 6'6 and a literal cannon for one of his arms. He has one regular eye and red robotic one. "Victor Stone, AKA Cyborg. College star football player was pronounced dead after a horrific car accident that killed his mother as well. His father, an engineer at Star Labs believed that he could regenerate his son's body using experimental metallic nanites, but the experiment went wrong and the nanites fused with what was left of his body, turning him into a cyborg. He disowned his father for not letting him die and was in a bad metal state when we found him, but we believe he has a lot of potential. Along with superhuman strength and intellect, his metallic body is equipped with a number of weapons including a laser cannon and heat seeking missiles.

The next slide is of someone who looks very familiar to me and I'm sure everyone else in the room. It appears to be a Blue Beetle costume, but to my knowledge the last Blue Beetle, Ted Kord, retired back in my younger days as Robin. I guess the beetle scarab found a new host... I mean partner. "Jaime Reyes, a fifteen year from El Paso, Texas, found the Blue Beetle scalab a few months ago in a vacant lot. It didn't take long for him to be a local vigilante in El Paso. He's really raw, but has potential. He has all the abilities of past blue beetles including flight, super strength, and enhanced durability."

On to the next one, which shows an African-American teenager with dreads and black and yellow costume with a lighting bolt symbol on his chest. Wonder what this guy can do, I think ironically. "Virgil Hawkins. Calls himself Static Shock. Got caught up in a gang shoot out at a chemical factory. He was to close when one of the tanks exploded. He should have died, but instead he woke up days later in a hospital with the power to manipulate and create electromagnetic waves and magnetic fields. Like Jaime Reyes, he took it upon himself to fight crime and has been targeting the local street gangs specifically.

Last one. It's an African-American female with puffy black hair and a cocky smile. She is in a black and yellow suit, which resembles a bee and has insect like wings protruding from the back of the costume. "Karen Beecher, known as Bumble Bee. She wanted to do something about the corruption in her city, so she stole an experimental suit from star labs that gives her super strength, the ability to fly, and she is able to shrink herself to the size of actual Bumble Bee. Her attitude will adjusting, but she is on the right track."

"Superboy and Robin will also be under you on this project, but you all are already familiar with them," Superman adds.

"The group is very diverse with a lot of different personalities and backgrounds to manage, so getting them all to work together fluently will be the biggest challenge, but I think if we work together on this than we can collectively make this project a success and ensure the Earth's safety at the same time," Wonder Woman chimes in.

"So, who's in?" Batman finally asks with a blunt tone.

"Well, you already know how I feel," Flash says, leaning back in his chair with a smile on his face.

"If it is what is wished of me, I shall," Aqualad adds, obviously trying to please his king."

"It sounds like a good experience to me," Troia includes.

Red Arrow just shrugs in agreement. "Whatever."

Everyone's eyes in the room fall upon me, awaiting me to give an answer. Do I really want to be apart of this? I've worked so hard to build a name for myself, to do everything by myself. Do I really want to be associated with a team? Especially one in which I'm just teaching kids how to not die in combat? Plus, if you really think about it, I'd be working under Batman again since the missions are directly assigned by him. Well, that decides it. Pushing my chair back from the table I stand. "Look, I really appreciate the offer, but this whole team thing isn't for me right now. I wish you all luck though." Before anyone tries to convince me otherwise, I leave the room. I got enough of the 'team' stuff working under Batman and I don't plan on going back to that anytime soon.

* * *

 **Dick is not feeling this team thing right now, but things change. Next chapter we get introduced to the team and their first mission is more than they can handle when a ship crash lands in California and one pissed off, confused alien girl emerges from it. Will Nightwing have to step in and help the young team or will the Justice League be forced to get involved? Review and give your opinion and or criticism**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you all for the support the last chapter got. I got motivated so I decided to write and well, this happened. I really love how this story flows so easily. Enjoy!**

* * *

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Saturday, September 11th - 1:00 PM**

 **Mount Justice**

The Flash, hands locked behind his back, paced back and forth in front of the new recruits, staring at each intently as he passed, them staring back at him in return, probably each wondering what he was thinking. They had only arrived at Mount Justice hours earlier and not long after dropping their stuff in their rooms, they met their instructors for the first time and were ordered to report to the training bay, where they currently stood. It was all happening really quickly, especially for the one's with no experience that didn't know what to expect.

Bumble Bee, Blue Beetle, Cyborg, Beast Boy, Superboy, Robin, Static Shock, and Raven all watched the Flash for a long moment before the speedster finally spoke. "So, all of you think you have what it takes to be heroes, huh? You think it's easy, huh? Well, it's not! It takes blood, sweat, and tears! You have to want it! You have to..."

"Okay, enough out of you," Troia interjected from where she stood off to the side by Aqualad and Red Arrow. She had listened to Wally rant and let him have his fun, but that was quiet enough. It was time to get to work. She took her place in front of the group. "All of you have been asked to come here for a very specific reason. You are believed to play a big part in Earth's future security, but before that can happen you have to be trained to not only master your own powers and abilities, but be able to use them effectively while fighting as a unit. Myself, Red Arrow, Aqualad, and the Flash have been assigned to be your instructors and your leaders.

"We will be walking you through every step of the training process, and though we recognize some of you have real experience," she said referring to Superboy, Robin, and the green colored changeling, Beast Boy. "All training will be mandatory for all of you. There will be no special treatment. Here you will all become exceptional heroes and we hope find a place where you feel welcomed and are comfortable. Since the time I was a little girl, I have grown up with these people," she said referring to the rest of the instructors and of course the missing Nightwing. "And I hope you all become as close with this team as I have became with them. While in training, all of you will stay here, regardless of if you have some place else to go. You will train together, eat together, and sleep together."

"Um, yeah, about that sleep together thing," the Flash interjected. "She doesn't mean literally. You all have your own rooms, and as for the other meaning of 'sleep together,' yeah, don't do that one either. It's a no no while you're here. Not my rule, but Batman's. He kind of a party pooper. If it were up to me, you could... Uh, you know what? I'm not getting into that right now. We'll talk later when the scrooges aren't around," he said after observing the disproving glares from the rest of his fellow instructors. This actually earned a few laughs from the group. If Wally was good at anything it was calming the nerves that surely all of them were feeling at the moment.

Aqualad stepped up beside Toria. "All of you are teenagers, not much younger than us." He glanced over at Cyborg, who was twenty-three, making him the oldest in the room by a year. "Some of you are even older than any of us. We won't try to parent you, but you do have rules to follow. Three of them in fact."

"Rule one," Red Arrow began, speaking up for the first time. "You will take this seriously. This isn't a game. People die out there." He glanced at the new Robin, Tim Drake. Just last year, Dick's replacement as Robin, Jason Todd, was murdered by the Joker. Batman had never been quite the same since that day and everyone knew it.

"Rule two. You will follow each instruction we give you when we give it to you. None of us will tell you anything to hurt you. And finally, rule three. You will at no time do anything to endanger any member of this team. Look around. This is now your family. You will at all times protect your family."

"So, do we have any questions?" Troia asked.

"Can we just get started?" the fifteen year old Superboy grunted, with an eye roll as he crossed his insanely muscular arms over his just as insanely muscular chest. Ten minutes into this and the bad attitudes were already coming out. Great.

Troia smirked. "Thought you would never ask. Time to see what you guys got. Pair up. Time to do one on one combat drills," She ordered.

* * *

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Saturday, September 11th - 3:00 PM**

 **Mount Justice**

Two hours worth of training later and the instructors had realized a few things. A few members of the team had severe attitude problems, specifically Superboy and Bumble Bee. Robin was probably the only one who had any concept of how to fight tactically, the rest just trying to over power or out gun their opponent so to speak, and that this team had a long, long way to go. It was definitely going to be a marathon, not a sprint.

"Alright," Red Arrow began. "That was an... interesting first session. We will pick it up again tomorrow at the same time with two on two matches. Until then eat, shower, and get some sleep."

"But not together," the Flash added jokingly. He was probably everyone's favorite instructor so far. He didn't drill orders and he tried to make everything more relaxed. It was a good contrast from the others, who were all about business.

With that, the instructors began to make their way toward Mount Justice's exit, off to do whatever they had to do for the day, and leaving the recruits alone for really the first time.

"So," Beast Boy began, as he looked over his clearly exhausted teammates. "What now, dudes?"

"I think I saw a few game systems in the common room," Blue beetle said, dropping his mask for the first time.

"Bet you I can kick all of your asses at madden," Static challenged, removing his mask as well.

"I'm in," Robin agreed. His mask was going nowhere however. He didn't trust any of them enough yet and more than likely he wouldn't for a long time. It took Dick years to reveal who he was to anyone outside of Wally.

"Video games?" Superboy, who went by Conner the while not on a mission or training, said with disgust. "Aren't all of you too old for all of that nonsense?"

"Dude, you need to relax. I think most of us here are like sixteen," Virgil retorted.

"I'm only fifteen," Beast Boy added with a shrug.

"Whatever," Conner droned as he began to walk off. "If anything important happens I'll be in my room."

"Dude needs a chill pill," Virgil said once he thought he was out of ear shot, but Conner responded with a 'heard that' from the far end of the bay in return.

Jaime shrugged and began to walk toward the entrance to the common room, everyone following behind off to do whatever they wanted until tomorrow's training. Beast Boy, Gar outside of training, was toward the front of the group, but he noticed the large half man/half robot that he knew as Cyborg and Victor Stone, the ex future NFL star, was lagging behind the rest of the group and though half of his face was robotic, he could tell something was wrong, so being the friendly person he was, he drifted back to walk beside him.

"Hey dude, what's up?" Gar greeted with a friendly smile, looking up at the man who stood exactly a foot taller than him.

Vic looked down at the small, green colored teen, surprised to find him there. He hadn't even noticed he was walking beside him, having been too lost in his own thoughts. "Oh, um hey," he returned in his deep voice that was still human.

Gar wasn't sure what he sound like, that being the first time he heard him talk. "I'm Garfield Logan, but call me Gar."

Vic nodded in acknowledgment. "Victor Stone... but just Vic is fine." Normally only his friends new him as Vic before the accident, but this kid seemed okay to him, so why not?

"Yeah, I know. You were a football player, right?" he asked innocently even though he knew the answer.

Vic looked down and sadness took over his face as he came to a stop just outside the common room. "Yeah, I was before... you know," he replied motioning toward his now mostly metallic body.

Gar's eyes widened, realizing what he'd said. "Oh, dude, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to..."

"No, you're good," Vic interjected, raising his hand to quiet him. "It's good to talk about it sometimes." He looked over the much younger boy. "So how'd you become... you know?"

"Green?" Gar assumed with small chuckle. "I was bit by a green monkey."

Vic began to laugh, but it slowly came to a halt when he realized that changeling wasn't laughing with him and that he wasn't joking. "Oh, you're serious."

Gar nodded. "Yep. After it bit me I got a virus that made my DNA really unstable, so I can do this now," he informed, rapidly changing from a Lion, to a dog, then to a gorilla, all green in color, before morphing back to a human.

"Wow, that pretty cool, little dude," Vic exclaimed, amazed at the ease he could shift.

"Dude, are you kidding? What you can do is awesome. That cannon is amazing and you must be able to move a mountain," he replied, reflecting back to what he saw him do during the training.

Vic glanced down at his robotic arm that could transform in a laser cannon at will. "You really think so?"

"Of course, dude," Gar replied, still clearly excited.

A slight genuine smile took over Vic's face, something he hadn't felt in a long time. On the outside world he always wore large hoodies to hide his body and face from the world, scared of being judged, but here everyone was different, so none of it mattered. Maybe he really had found home. "I appreciate it. Really I do. ...Hey, you want to get some pizza, little dude?"

Gar flashed a billion watt smile up at him. "Sounds good to me, bro! Bet you I can out eat you," he challenged.

"Are you kidding me? I outweigh you by like 150 pounds without the metal," Vic retorted.

"Dude, my stomach is like trash compacter. I can eat forever. You would so lose."

"Okay, you're on, little dude!" Vic shot back as they rushed into the common room to find out where the nearest pizza place was.

And so the rivalry began...

* * *

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Saturday, September 25th - 1:00 PM**

 **Mount Justice**

Two weeks of hard, vigorous training had passed and well... the team still wasn't making much progress. The instructors understood that making a team work together as a cohesive unit took time, but they were moving at a snail's pace. Besides their lack of teamwork in combat, their personal relationships didn't seem to be sticking like hoped for either, but their had been some progress. Virgil and Jaime seemed to get along very well, both being the same age and from similar backgrounds, but what was even more surprising was how close Gar and Vic seemed to have become. They had almost nothing in common yet they appeared to be the two closest out of the entire group by far, often trading dirty jokes and arguing while playing video games. It wasn't even uncommon to see Vic walking around with a green bird on his shoulder anymore. It was an odd, but not unwelcomed combination to say the least.

The rest of the group was more difficult. Karen always had something smart to say and seemed to love arguing, Raven had barely said anything to anyone in the entire two weeks, preferring to read books rather that interact with people. Gar had tried to talk to her a few times, but was shut down each time with one word responses even to questions that required more than one word answers. Conner seemed to blow up over everything and clearly had severe anger issues, causing pretty much everyone avoid him, and Robin... well, Robin was just wondering what the hell he had gotten himself into. This was definitely not what Batman said it would be.

They were about halfway through their opening sparring session for the day's training when a loud buzzing sound echoed throughout the room, causing all of them to come to a pause, some in mid combat. Seconds later, a holographic image of Batman, appeared near the far wall, the background being that of the center room in the Watch Tower. "Attention Titans, today will be your first mission. Troia you will lead."

She nodded from where she stood beside Red Arrow. Troia wasn't scared of leadership. She was a great leader in fact and had kind of taken over leadership of the Project, though it wasn't official. What she was scared of however, was one of her trainees getting seriously injured out there. She knew they weren't ready for a real world scenario, she knew her fellow instructors knew they weren't ready for a real world scenario, but she didn't want Batman to know they weren't ready. "What's the mission?"

"Nothing complicated. An hour ago our satellites picked up what we thought was a small meteorite headed straight for the Arctic Ocean, but then it changed direction, giving us reason to believe it's a small ship carrying intelligent life. All attempts to contact the passenger or passengers have failed, rather that's because the being cannot understand our language or has hostile intent, we don't know. Normally this would be something assigned to Green Lantern, but he's off Earth for the time being, so we'll leave this to you."

A holographic digital clock appeared beside Batman with the numbers 20:49 on it. "The estimated time of impact is in twenty minutes and unless it changes direction again, it will land in the desert just ten miles outside of Los Angeles. I'll send you the exact coordinates. Good luck, Titans. I'll be watching in case the situation gets out of hand." With that the screen and clock both disappeared.

Troia turned to the team. "Alright, this is what we have been training for. It's time to put together everything you've learned and please don't embarrass us in front of Batman."

"I can just feel the confidence," Bumble muttered sarcastically.

"Here's what we're going to do. I'm going to take Aqualad, Superboy, Bumble Bee, Blue Beetle, and Static and we'll try handle it ourselves. Red Arrow, you, Flash, Cyborg, Robin, Beast Boy, and Raven will be waiting five hundred meters away in case the being is hostile and we need back up. Everyone clear on their roll?"

Everyone nodding in agreement, they made their way to the hanger where two auto-piloted jets were waiting to take them wherever they needed to be. Things were about to go down.

* * *

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Saturday, September 25th - 1:31 PM**

 **California Desert**

The team arrived right on time, because just as the jets landed where they were supposed to be, a bright fire ball became visible in the sky. Troia and her team watched as it neared, the closer it getting the louder whistling noise it making. They could see it wasn't that large, probably only big enough for one passenger, more of a pod than a ship really, but it was moving fast. When the metallic fireball finally struck the ground, the earth shook, even from one hundred and fifty meters away where they stood, safe from the impact zone. Dust and sand flew into the air causing vision near the crater to be almost zero, but as it slowly began to clear, Troia motioned for her team to move forward.

They slowly approached and as they got closer they could begin to see the crater left by the ship, but before they could actually see the ship itself, a blast of bright green light exploded out of the crater and human like figure shot into the air at blazing speed. It floated their for a moment, the only thing clearly visible through sand clouds being it's glowing green eyes, but when the dust finally cleared away completely they could make the figure out fully.

It was a girl, but she didn't look quite human. She had golden orange skin that could probably pass as a human with a tan, however, her long, flowing red hair wasn't a natural human color at all. Also, the fact she was flying and her eyes were glowing green was a good indicator that she was far from anything naturally on Earth.

The flying girl seemed panicked, scared, or angry. Maybe all three. It really was hard to tell. She looked all of them over a moment, but her eyes focused in on Blue Beetle specifically. He had already transformed the arm of his suit into a cannon in preparation for whatever he thought was about to happen. A rookie mistake that would cost the entire team.

Feeling threatened, the girl let out a mighty battle cry and her hands began to glow impossibly bright green, full of some type of energy and thrusting her arms forward she fired at Blue Beetle, hitting both him and Static. The two teen heroes went flying through air before coming to a crash about thirty yards from where they previously stood. "I know this alien bitch didn't just shoot at us," Bee muttered before taking flight before Troia could stop her. She charged right at the floating alien girl, but before she could get anywhere near the girl rocketed directly at Bumble Bee, wrapping her in her grasp with ease.

She was insanely fast and as Bumble Bee found out when the alien girl began to squeeze the life out her, incredibly strong. It only took a few seconds for Bee's body to fall unconscious and with a loud declaration of some foreign language, she tossed Bee aside like a rag doll, hitting both Blue Beetle and Static, who were just making it to their feet, once again knocking them back to the ground.

"Enough of this," Superboy roared before leaping into the air toward the girl. He'd seen enough and it was time to finish this, but she met him in mid air, and with a massive punch that was like being hit by a missile, knocked him back down to sandy ground with such force that he created a crater of his own on impact.

Troia just stared up wide eyed at then being in the air. How could they stop her? She just ran through the entire team so easily. "Troia to Red Arrow. I'm going to need that back up," she communicated through her ear phone speaker. They were in for a fight, that was for sure.

* * *

 **Dick's POV**

 **Saturday, September 25th - 2:00 PM**

 **Dick's apartment**

I press the bar off of my chest then once again lower it. I feel the weight force my muscles to contract over and over again until they can longer put out enough force for another repetition, so I rack the bar and sit up, wiping the sweat on my face away with a towel. I'm about to head over to the treadmill in my apartment's gym when I see a breaking news icon appear on the television screen hanging on the far wall of the gym. I stop in my tracks when I see a reporter in the middle of the desert with the caption below saying 'Spaceship Crash in Cali.' Not long after that, a zoomed in video of a flying girl appears on the screen and she's fighting someone, but I can't quite make out... Oh, those are my friends and those kids for the Project Titan things.

Wow, they are getting their ass kicked. How could they be losing a twelve to one fight? I begin to watch their movements more closely and see that they aren't working together at all. It's a disorganized mess. No one is following orders at this point, everyone seemingly doing their own thing, trying to take the flying girl down. What have they taught these kids? Even a better question, why were they assigned to this? Where's Green Lantern? Or at the very least a few member's of the Justice League. Those kids are going to get killed out there. She's obviously too much for them and Troia, Red Arrow, Aqualad, and Flash can't focus on taking her out if they are too busy trying to manage those kids.

So much for a relaxing Saturday in. A dreadful sigh escapes me, knowing what I have to do.

* * *

 **Next chapter Nightwing and the flying girl will be formally introduced and we may learn more about her past and get to know the team a little bit better too. Keep up the support guys. I really love reading your feedback.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Thank you all for the support everyone. I love reading all of the comments and have kind of fallen in love with this story myself.**

* * *

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Saturday, September 25 th - 2:10 PM**

 **The Watch Tower**

Batman and Superman stood side by side at the Watch Tower, watching the fight with the alien girl unfold with one of their many ultra powerful satellites. To put it nicely, the Titans were losing. To put in not so nicely, they were getting their asses handed to them. Batman dissected every second of the battle. The girl was indeed insanely powerful and clearly had a lot of combat training, her moves being extremely precise and thought out, but they still shouldn't have been losing.

There were twelve of them against one of her, and on top of that, four of them were highly experienced. The reason they were getting beat was simple. They had absolutely no teamwork ability what so ever, despite all the training that they had received. If anything, they were just getting in each other's way more than helping each other.

They watched the fight continue on for a few more moments before Superman turned to Batman. "Don't you think it's time to intervene in this? Their fight is nearing the city."

"Not yet," Batman replied sternly.

"But if we don't step in soon, she could kill one of them. This mission is clearly too much for them," The man of steel reasoned. For the life of him, he couldn't figure out why they hadn't stepped in already.

"Just wait," Batman instructed.

"Wait for what?" Superman questioned.

"You'll see," Batman answered simply.

Superman had no idea what was going through his companion's mind, but he certainly knew whatever Batman thought was going to happen that it would have to happen soon, otherwise, one of these kid's first mission would be there last as well.

* * *

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Saturday, September 25th - 2:20 PM**

 **California Dessert**

Troia looked around the sandy battlefield. The Titans were beat up and exhausted from the fight that had seemed to last forever. She knew they couldn't go much more, but she doubted the alien girl would even let them retreat. God, how did this go so badly? They had worked so hard and their first mission was a complete disaster. At this point she just hoped the Justice League was on the way. They clearly weren't going to win this alone.

Suddenly, her ears became aware of a sound in the background. It sounded almost like a... fighter jet? She looked up and was shocked to see a black and blue plane flying toward them, it getting lower and lower to the ground as it grew closer. Could it be? Nightwing?

Sure enough, once the hero was directly over the battlefield and the plane was around twenty feet above the ground, Nightwing himself flipped from the auto-piloted plane, coming to a landing so perfect that it could make Olympic gymnast gawk in utter amazement.

"Dude..." Beast Boy whispered to himself from where he stood, not even fifty feet away. Nightwing was a complete badass. Everyone knew it and it looked like he was finally going to not only get to meet him, but see him in action as well.

"Glad you could finally make it!" The Flash called from a good distance away, gripping his arm, which had been caught by one of the flying girl's eye beams.

"Looked like you could use some help," he called back to his friend before focusing in on the alien girl, levitating about twenty feet or so off the ground. She was starring back at him, studying him carefully.

Nightwing did not want to fight her, not after seeing how powerful she was, but when he moved to take off his utility belt to show he meant no harm, the flying girl dove for him at an insane speed. He barely had time to mutter the word 'shit' before she tackled him, knocking the wind out of him in the process. If it weren't for his suit it would have probably broke every rib he had, so it could have been a lot worse.

She was indeed extremely powerful, but he was actually a good match for her skill set. He was used to fighting individuals much stronger than himself in close combat, unlike Red Arrow, who preferred to fight from a distance where he was more effective, so the second she rammed into him, he immediately twisted all of his weight, allowing him to wind up on top of her and force her to come crashing to the ground and slide for about another forty yards.

Once she came to a stop, she attempted to buck Nightwing off, but he was locked in too tightly, so instead she attempted to blast him with her eye beams. He quickly leaned back, narrowly dodging her blast that would have surely fried him, and thrusting his immensely powerful legs off the ground, he blasted off of her, into the air, back flipping to a safe distance away before throwing three smoke pellets from his utility belt at her.

She instinctively shot her eye beams at them, from where she now floated barely off the ground, but the heat caused them to explode. Smoke filled the entire battlefield, making her vision zero. In a panic she darted toward where the masked hero once stood just seconds earlier, but found nothing, but air in his place. Before she could react, she felt something that felt like two metal poles touch each side of her temple and the words "time to sleep," were whispered in her ear. She had no time to react before two massive volts of electricity pulsed throughout her temple. She let out a pain filled cry and the next thing she knew the entire world went black and she fell to ground, unconscious.

Once the smoke cleared, the team gazed at Nightwing who stood over the unconscious alien's body, having successfully defeated her.

"Dude...," Beast Boy once again whispered to himself.

The Flash looked over at Bumble Bee, who stood just a few feet away. "See that? Taught him everything he knows," he joked, earning a genuine laugh from the girl.

Up at the Watch Tower, Superman looked over Batman, both having witnessed what just unfolded. "I'm guessing that's what you were waiting on?"

"Yep," the Dark Knight responded.

"How did you know he'd come?" Superman inquired.

"He's my son," Batman answered simply.

Superman crossed his mighty arms. "Maybe you should tell him that. You two haven't exactly be close lately, Bruce."

Batman looked down and was quite for a moment, clearly reflecting on what Superman had said. He wanted a close relationship with Dick, desperately so in fact, but ever since their fall out, pride on both sides has prevented it from recovering. The truth was, he knew Dick was ready to strike out on his own, when told him that he wanted to, but Bruce was scared that something bad would happen if he weren't there to watch over him, but of course he could never communicate that. It was too hard for him. "You go transport the alien girl here and secure her in a holding room, while I go contact Green Lantern and get him to come back as soon as possible to help us gather information on her," the Dark Knight instructed, not feeling like having a heart to heart with Clark at the moment.

Superman frowned at his avoidance, but nodded regardlessly, flying off to handle the matter at hand.

* * *

 **Dick's POV**

 **Saturday, September 25th - 5:00 PM**

 **The Watch Tower**

"Yep, she's definitely a Tameranian," Hal Jordan or better known as Green Lantern informs as he observes the still unconscious red haired girl who rampaged through dessert a couple of hours earlier, behind the safety of the thick, glass-like, two way mirror of the holding cell. She's strapped down to the small bed in the room, with a type of deep space metal that even Superman would struggle to break free from. Needless to say, we don't want her breaking out when she wakes.

"A Tameranian?" I question, never having even heard of the race before.

He nods, arms crossed over his chest. "Yeah, I don't much about them really. They're from the planet Tameran in the Vegan system, a pretty bad part of the galaxy to be. Green Lanterns aren't allowed there, so I never actually seen one in person. What I do know though is that they are a warrior race, which is probably why she gave you guys so much trouble. This girl has probably been training to fight since she was a little kid."

That does explain why she was so hard for them to take down. She was practically made for combat. "The question is what do we do with her after she wakes up," I ponder aloud more to myself than Green Lantern really.

"That depends on how she answers some questions I have," I hear a voice respond from behind that could be none other than Batman's. He comes to a stop in between Green Lantern and I, looking over the girl. "I reviewed the entire fight a few times. It appears the only reason she attacked in the first place was because Blue Beetle had his cannon drawn. Up until that point she just seemed to be observing them. I believe it she came with the intention of a fight, she would have struck immediately."

"So, you don't think she had intent to be hostile?" I ask.

"I think she was scared. Superman looked over the pod she arrived in. One of it's thrusters had been shot out. Someone was attacking her at some point. I'm guessing she escaped and her pod's atmospheric analyzation system picked up Earth as the nearest and best fit for her species, so she landed her," he explains.

"Yeah, I guess I can see how being attacked in space and crash landing on a foreign planet, only to find a group of guys in strange costumes waiting for you the second you left your ship could potentially put you on edge," Green Lantern adds.

If she really was attacked before arriving on Earth and Blue Beetle had his cannon drawn like Batman says, than she may be the victim in all of this and not quite as hostile as I originally thought. Just then, we hear a small moan coming from inside the room, and we all turn to see the girl beginning to stir a little, making it clear that she's coming to here senses.

Her eyes begin to blink, open and where there were two bright green orbs of energy earlier, now set two green pupiled eyes, similar to a humans except where a human's sclera was white, hers was a very soft green, much lighter than her emerald pupils. I guess they only glow like that when she is agitated.

My theory is proven when, after a second to drowsily observe the room, her eyes once again began to blaze green as she roared and struggled against the restraints, unable to break them no matter how hard she fought. All three of us watch this for a moment, but then I noticed something odd. In the corner of her eyes, were tears. She was scared. I could see it now. I don't how I missed it earlier.

"I'm going to go attempt to talk to her," I tell them.

"I don't think that's a good...," Green Lantern begins, but Batman raises a hand to silence him before nodding to me, a go ahead to enter the room.

I nod back, a sense a satisfaction flowing through me with the knowledge he trusts me to handle this. I then make my way over to the door panel and enter the clearance code to the room and the door slides open, me walking trough its threshold before it quickly shuts back.

When she sees me enter, I get every indication needed that she remembers me from earlier, because she begins to fight even harder against her restraints and scream even louder. This is the first time I have really gotten a good look at her, and despite that fact I know she wants to kill me and her eyes are glowing green with rage, she is actually really beautiful, like model like beautiful. I guess I was to caught up in stopping her earlier to notice that.

As I near her, I hold up my hands, hoping that is a universal sign that I'm not here to fight or to hurt her. I won the first go around, but something tells me I won't be quite as lucky if it happens again. She stops screaming, her chest rising and falling heavily as she observes me carefully. "I'm going to remove all of my weapons," I tell her before slowly taking off my utility belt and tossing it to the side. I doubt she can make out what I am saying, but I think she understands the gesture at the very least because her eyes stop glowing. Wow, they are really pretty, but uh, back on point.

I point to the restraints before making an opening motion with my hands. "I want to let you out, but I need you to not attack me," I attempt, pointing to my closed fist and shaking my head. I must look really goofy right now.

She glances down at the restraints over her arms, torso, and legs, and then attempts to look up at the one across her forehead, holding her head down. She then did something that surprised me. She nodded. I don't know if that meant she understood, but it was indeed a nod.

I nod back before slowly moving to the panel in the room that controls the restraints. With a deep breath, knowing I am taking a chance, I press the button and her restraints release. I almost instantly regret it, because in what felt like a split second, she flies into the air and darts toward me, grabbing me and pinning my body against the far wall with ease, but I can tell that she is holding the vast majority of her force back. As to why, I'm not sure.

I look over at the two way mirror on the opposite side of the room and shake my head, signaling them not to come in. I'm not in immediate danger yet and I don't want them to set her off by entering the room, and considering Batman looks like something straight out of a horror movie, I am pretty certain it would. Also, if she is hostile, the last thing we need is for that door to open and for her to get let loose in the Watch Tower. That would really make a bad day worse, especially considering I was the one who let her out of her restraints.

I return my eyes to her and find that she is studying me curiously, one hand resting on my shoulder, the other on my chest, pinning me to the wall. This might actually be hot if I were sure she wasn't going to kill me any second now. The Tameranian doesn't do anything for a long time, but look me over, she then slowly, almost hesitantly, reaches her hand that rested on my shoulder up to my mask and takes it off, revealing my ice blue eyes.

A gasp escapes her and she stares at them with wonder as her hand slowly drifts under my face. I guess her people don't have blue eyes, so she has never seen them before. She studies them for a moment longer before something happens that I would have never seen coming. She grabs me by my suit and pulls me in, her lips meeting mine in a hard, long kiss. Wow, she must have really liked my eyes.

She makes a popping sound with her lips when she eventually pulls away from me. Shen then releases me from her grasp, leaving me to gawk at her without being pressed to a wall. "Why did you kiss me?" I ask motioning toward my lips, knowing she won't understand, but to my utter surprise, she responds.

"I did not kiss you, as you say. I simply acquired the ability to speak your language through lip contact. It is an ability of my people," she explains and I realize how beautiful her voice is.

"So, you can speak English now?" I ask in amazement. "Just because your lips touched mine?"

She raises an eyebrow at me. "Yes. It is not that difficult of a concept to grasp."

She does have a point. She did explain it after all. Okay, let's try a different question then. "Right, so what's your name and where are you from?" I ask. Even though I know where she is from, I ask to see if she will be honest. The chances are if she tells a lie about one thing, everything else she says is going to be a lie as well. One of the many lessons learned from Batman.

"My name is Koriand'r... Starfire in your langue, I do believe," she answers, clearly thinking hard to attempt to translate it from one language to another. "I am from the planet Tameran in the Vegan System where I served as second in line for the thrown. I wish to know who you are now. It is only fair, yes?"

"I'm Nightwing and this is Earth," I begin before coming to a pause. "Wait... second in line for the thrown? You're a princess?"

She shakes her head. "No. I was one, but certain things happened and I am no longer one." Okay, still just as lost as I was before.

"What about your pod? It was attacked before you landed here. I want to know by who and why?" I interrogated, sounding more like Batman than I would like to admit.

"I do not have to tell you anything if I do not wish to," she snapped back, me clearly having upset her with my demanding tone.

A sigh escapes me and I raise my hand, knowing I need to change my tone if I want to get any information. "You're right. You don't have to. I'm sorry. It's just not everyday that a space ship crashes here with a powerful alien girl inside. When something like that happens, people get curious. That's why my friends, the people you fought earlier, where there. We weren't trying to attack you, I promise. Transmissions weren't sent to your ship, but a response was never received. They were just sent to check things out. It was all a misunderstanding."

Koriand'r... or better yet, Kori's entire demeanor instantly changes, going from defensive, to thoughtful. I watch as the last little bit of hostility drains from her, seeing what I'm saying is indeed true. Something odd then happens. A blush takes over her cheeks and she looks down. "You think I am powerful?"

I raise an eyebrow, completely confused. I guess I can see how calling someone from a warrior race powerful could be considered a compliment, almost like calling a girl from Earth pretty I suppose. Either way I decide to roll with it. "Absolutely. The way you use your abilities in battle is amazing. You must have been training a long time."

She nodded, still furiously blushing. "Since I was very young, but I must say that your combat skills are excellent as well. You do not appear to have the abilities that most of your comrades do, and even yet, you proved to be a great opponent."

"I was trained by the best Earth has to offer," I acknowledge and begin to see my opportunity to get information. "You know Kori... Can I call you Kori?" I pause and she nods in conformation and even seems to like the sound of it. "It would be really awesome if you could teach me some stuff you know and I would be glad to teach you some things I know. We could even spar or something. I think it would be really fun and I'm sure we would become really close friends."

"Friends? Like allies? Ones who fight together?" she questions with confusion her head cocked to the side in a way that I find strangely adorable.

"Um, sometimes," I answer. "But most of the time just go do stuff together."

"Like what?" she inquires, still confused.

"I can show you if you allow me to, but first you have to answer some questions for me, okay?" I attempt. She shifts nervously from foot to foot, obviously scared to talk about it. Taking a chance, I reach out and lightly grab her hand, causing her eyes to meet mine again. "Kori, it's going to be okay. You can trust me. I promise."

"...Okay."

* * *

 **I loved that chapter! Next chapter we learn more about Kori's dark past, a decision has to be made about her, and the team faces the wrath of the Batman. Please drop a quick review and give me your feedback!**


	4. Chapter 4

**This is a good character building chapter, but things are going to pick up pretty soon. Love all the support this story has gotten and all of you guys have been great. Please, keep it up!**

* * *

 **Dick's POV**

 **Saturday, September 25th - 5:40 PM**

 **The Watch Tower**

"So, Kori, let's start from the beginning, okay?" I begin, both Kori and I now sitting on the bed of the holding room. I thought it would be far more comfortable and relax than standing the entire time. She nods hesitantly and I continue. "Who attacked your ship?"

"The Gordanians," she answers after a moment of silence and it's clear that she is really struggling with this, but that just seems to make me more curious as to what her story is.

My still maskless eyes study her. I know that blank stare on her face very well. She is reflecting on something horrible, something that rocks her to her very core. I decide to carefully press on. "Okay, who are the Gordanians and why did they attack you?"

Another long pause. "The Gordanians are a monstrous race from the Vegan system. They are slavers and that is the reason they attacked my transportation pod. I escaped them."

"I see," I nod, believing this to be fairly simple now. "So, what I am understanding is that they tried to capture you, you escaped them, some followed you, and tried to shoot down your ship. Is that correct?"

Kori shook her head before dropping her eyes to her interlocked hands. "No, they did try to capture me. ...My father, the Grand Ruler of Tameran gave me to them."

So much for me understanding any of this. "...what?" I question. How could her father do such a thing to his own daughter? I know Bruce hasn't always been the best father figure, but Damn.

Her eyes remain sunken, almost empty looking now as she appears to reflect on the events of her past. "Tameran was at war with the Gordanians. It had lasted for many years, long before my birth , and Tameran's resources were becoming thin. My father knew that we could not hold them off much longer, there were just to many of them, so he met with their leader to find a way to end the conflict and they eventually came to an agreement and signed a treaty. The Gordanians would leave Tameran, never to return, but only in exchange for me. ...That was six years ago," she nearly whispers and I can tell she is trying not cry.

My mouth falls agape. "You were a slave for six years?"

Kori forces herself to look at me, her eyes showing a level of brokenness that I have never seen before and that is certainly saying something. "Yes, and it was... What they did to me... I cannot even begin to describe what I went through during those six years." Her eyes then turn into a vicious glare that could give even Batman a run for his money. "But that is why I killed as many as I possibly could when I escaped."

Oh boy. That was the wrong thing to say. I glance at the two way mirror, just knowing Batman is looking on at her disapprovingly on the other side. "You killed some of them?"

"Not some. I killed many," she seethes, the warrior side of her clearly coming out.

Yeah, that was definitely not the right thing to say. I must have be making a face of astonishment because she almost instantly comments on it. "Judging by the way you are looking at me, I am guessing that killing is not acceptable on this planet, but you must understand that I am not from this planet. I was raised differently than you. To me, killing your enemy was encouraged. Besides, if you knew what tortures I experienced, what I was forced to do, then you would not be looking at me with such judgment."

I am strongly against killing, but if I had been raised the way she had and been through the things she'd been through, my stance would probably be a little different on the matter. "You're right," I respond. "I'm sorry."

"It is okay," she assures me. "I understand that all cultures are different."

Before I can respond, the door to the room swishes open and we both turn to find who I know as Martin Manhunter enter the room, the door closing quickly behind him.

Kori seems to quickly become agitated, which I understand. She's never met him, and knows nothing of his intentions. Before she can do anything she'd regret, I place my hand on her leg, which is clothed in a black and silver suit, as is the rest of her body. She looks at me, studying my eyes. She sees that I am relaxed and therefore she calms herself some.

"Hello, Koriand'r of Tameran," he bows. "I am J'onn of Mars, but I am typically known as Martain Manhunter while in this uniform. I am here as a representative of the Justice League."

"What is this 'Justice League' as you say?" She asks and I believe she is talking to me more than him.

"The Justice League is the defending force against any potential threats against Earth," Manhunter attempts to explain.

"Basically it's a group of heroes who fight together for one common purpose, " I clarify. "You're actually at their headquarters right now."

"The one's I fought earlier were apart of this Justice League, yes?" She continues to question.

I shake my head. " Um no, not exactly. Most of them were really new at this and still in the early stages of their training. The Justice League is much more formidable. "

"Oh, that is good. They were quite disorganized in combat and we're not much of a challenge," she concludes. "I do not believe they could successfully defend Earth if they cannot even defeat a single Tameranian." "She then turns to J'onn. " Please, what does the Justice League want with me? I do apologize for the misunderstanding earlier, and I do not believe I should be held prisoner."

"We have no intentions of holding you prisoner, ," J'onn assures. "However, a decision does have to be made on rather you should be allowed to remain on Earth or not and before we can determine that we must verify you are telling the truth."

Kori doesn't seem surprised in the least others had been listening to our conversation, probably having known that since the beginning, but she did seem a little upset at the Manhunter. "Though I did not share every detail of my past I did not lie about anything!" She retorts. "Besides, I have no way to prove anything. I did not arrive here expecting to have to defend myself."

"We do not mean disrespect, Koriand'r, but if you will allow me to, I can verify everything you have said. You see, I have the ability to see into one's mind. As an act of trust building, I will not do so without your consent though"

She looks at me, as if expecting me to guide her. I really think she trusts me... or at the very least, trusts me more than anyone else right now, which I'm sure isn't saying very much at the moment. "You can trust him, Kori." As long as she has been truthful she has nothing to fear from J'onn. Although, even if she has been truthful about everything, I'm still not certain that they will allow her to stay on Earth, especially with the knowledge she has killed so many.

Kori turns to J'onn. "You may see into my mind, but under one condition." She sees J'onn waiting for her to continue, so she does. "You will not share anything I have not already spoken of. Some things I wish to leave in the past. I am sure you can understand that."

"Of course. I promise you, I shall not share anything other that what you allow me to," he agrees.

Kori nods, showing that she is ready before closing her eyes and bowing her head, J'onn doing the same. Things are deathly quiet for a long moment, and I see J'onn begin to shake, obviously reacting whatever he is seeing. Wow, her past really must be full of unimaginable horrors. I hear her whimper and turn to see that she is shaking as well, probably from being forced to relive memories that she has most likely tried to repress a thousand times.

I instinctively grab her hand to attempt to calm her, but instantly realize that is a huge mistake when she squeezes it, causing me to whence in extreme pain. God, she is so strong. If she squeezes any harder every bone in my hand is going to break, but lucky for me her head snaps ups, leaving her panting heavily, and she slowly begins to lower the pressure on my hand before finally releasing it, leaving me to shake it until I can regain feeling.

After seeing that she is okay, I turn back to J'onn, finding him standing there, mouth agape. "Oh my... I truly am sorry for the things you have experienced in your young life, Ms. Kori, but I swear to you, I will vouch for you in front of the league."

Kori offers him the smallest of smiles and nods. "Thank you."

"If you will, can I have you accompany me to the conference room where the rest of the league is waiting?" J'onn asks her. I guess Batman and Green Lantern left as soon as the Manhunter walked in, knowing he would be able to handle her if she for some reason lost control.

"I shall," she agrees. "But I wish for Nightwing to accompany me." I am little surprised by her request, but I don't deny her. She's clearly has had a rough day to put it lightly and I really don't want to make it any worse for her.

The Manhunter glances between us a couple of times before shrugging. "Very well." He then turns and opens the door with his powers before turning back to us. "Please, follow me."

I place my mask over my face, something Kori seems a little confused about, but she doesn't question it, but I'm sure it will come later if she has he opportunity. We then follow behind Martian Manhunter, heading out the door and down the long, curving hallway. As we walk in silence, I pay very close attention to her. She is clearly nervous, but I can tell she is doing her absolute best to hide it. She seems to be sticking very close to me. When I slow down, so does she. When I pick up my pace, she follows. I guess I am some kind of comfort for her, which I don't have a problem with.

We eventually come to the large, metallic double doors that I know is the conference room. The Manhunter opens them and we all walk through, finding Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and Green Arrow all sitting at the long rectangular table. J'onn joins them, sitting in between Green Lantern and Batman, and Kori chooses to sit on the very end of the table, probably so that she can view everyone clearly. I just stand behind her with my arms crossed over my chest, curious what is about to happen.

Superman is the first to speak. "Koriand'r of Tameran I presume," he greets, a friendly smile on his face, which I think relaxes her a little. She nods offering a small smile in return and he continues. "Welcome to Earth. I go by Superman here, this is Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and Green Arrow," he introduces. "Oh, and of course Martian Manhunter, who you should be familiar with by now. We are the core members of the Justice League."

"Both Nightwing and J'onn have told me of you. It is nice to meet you," Kori greets in return.

"So, now that greetings are out of the way, let's get down to the facts," Batman begins, killing the friendly vibe in the room and causing me to roll my eyes under my mask. "You stated, while being interviewed by Nightwing, that your space ship's thruster was shot by a race Known as the Gordanians. You described them as slavers and said your father, Tameran's ruler, gave you to them six years ago as part of a peace treaty. You reported that you had been subjected to many manners of torture and when you escaped you killed, and I quote, "many" of them. Is all of that correct?"

"Yes, but as I told Nightwing, my culture is different than yours and for what they subjected me to, I truly believe that each and every one of them got what they deserved," she retorted growing more confident in herself as she spoke,

"Indeed," Manhunter spoke up. "I looked into Ms. Kori's mind. Her life has been truly tramatic and the things she experienced while captive are... unspeakable is the only way I can think of to describe them. If I were in the same situation I cannot say that I would not have done the same thing."

"If it is truly as Ghastly as Manhunter says it is, than I see no wrong in what she did," Wonder Woman added.

"And it's true. Tameranians are raised to kill your adversary before they can kill you," Green Lantern added.

"So, let me pose a question to you then, Koriand'r," Batman interjected them. "Let's say we decide to let you stay here and live along side of our population. What happens when someone does something wrong to you? Do you kill them because it was how you were raised? Also, how do we know these Gordanians aren't going to track you to Earth and endanger our own people?"

Though he sounds like an absolute asshole, I know he has a solid point, so I remain quiet in the background and wait for Kori's answer.

"I escaped the Gordanian ships following long before I even entered this solar system and though I was raised the way I was, I will obey the laws of this world as long as I remain on it. If I am sent into space, there's a chance the Gordanians may find me, so I have strong incentive to not cause any trouble," she defends.

Batman is silent for a long moment, just staring her down as if attempting to dissect her with his mind. "What do you think, Nightwing?" he eventually inquires, turning to me.

This caught me off guard. "Um, what?"

"You have spent more time with her than anyone else here. Your opinion on the matter would help us come to a decision, so do you think Koriand'r should be allowed to remain on Earth?" Batman clarifies further.

I look down at Kori who has turned her body slightly to look up at me with her gorgeous green eyes that seem to hold a mixture of nervousness and hopfulness in them as if they are pleading for me to vouch for her, but not sure if I will. On one hand, Kori has killed before and her abilites make her a potential danger, but on the other, Martian Manhunter seems to believe she was justified in her actions and would it even be right to force her to leave with the knowledge she would be in grave danger in the vastness of space? Maybe the answer is fairly simple. "Many of the people sitting at this table have at one time killed someone and all of you could be potentially dangerous, but none of you are persecuted for it. She should not be judged off her past or her powers. I believe she should have the right to stay."

Kori smiles up at me, clearly happy that I chose to defend her and I nod back at her, letting her know that I got her back on this. We then both turn our attention to the Justice League. "Well," Superman begins, "if no one has anything else to say on the matter we may go ahead and vote. I cast my vote as yes. I see no reason to not allow you to stay, Koriand'r."

"Yes," Wonder Woman echoed. "I too am from a race of warriors and I shall not cast you out because of you're upbringing."

Another four votes for her to be allowed to stay until it came down to one more person. The Batman. Everyone looked on anxiously waiting for his decision. For her to be allowed to remain on Earth, she needed support from all seven of the core Justice League members and it was no surprise that his would be by far the hardest to earn, especially after he learned she had killed.

Batman stared her down for a long time before finally speaking. "Though I in no way trust you yet, Koriand'r, I do trust Nightwing's judgment, so I will say yes. Don't make me regret it."

I stand shocked. For Batman to actually say something like that in front of everyone is a really big deal for me and I can't help but to smile slightly. I nod in his direction and he returns the gesture, a sign of mutual respect between us, which is a huge leap forward in my opinion.

"I shall not," Kori replies to him with a huge enthusiastic smile on her face.

"Well, if that's it then I guess we can call this meeting to a close," Superman announces and begins to stand, obviously eager to go home.

"Hold up," Green Lantern stops him. "That's it? Where is she going to go? We can't just send her out into the world with no money or anything. I mean she has no concept of how things even work here. We might as well be sending her off into space." He does have a solid point. We can't just leave her to her own devices. That's just setting her up for failure.

"Here's a crazy idea," Green Arrow replies, throwing his arms behind his head and leaning back in his chair. "Why not let her stay at Mount Justice with the trainees? I mean, it'll give her a place to sleep, food, and she will be able to adjust to Earth slowly. Plus, it'll be kind of funny to see all of their expressions when the girl that kicked their ass a few hours ago walks in," he adds with a smirk.

"That's actually a good idea," Superman agrees before turning to me. "Nightwing, would you mind transporting her there and making sure she gets settled in for the night?"

Not exactly the coolest thing the Justice League has ever asked me to do, but why the hell not? At this point I just won't to get all of this over with and go home probably as bad as Superman. "Sure," I agree. "Kori, if you would, follow me please."

She nods before turning back to the league and offering one last big smile before heading out the door after me. Once outside she quickly catches up with me, walking side by side. "Thank you for defending me in there," she says a little nervousness in her voice.

I look over at her and smile. "It's no big deal. I'm glad everything worked out the way it did."

"I am as well... but I am slightly nervous about seeing all of the ones I fought again," she replies, twiddling her thumbs together, something I am noticing she does every time she is on edge about something.

I place my hand on her shoulder and we both come to a stop. "Don't worry, Kori. I'm going to make sure everything is taken care of. I haven't let you down yet, have I?"

She blushes and looks down at the floor. Wow, apparently my charm even works on alien girls. Good to know. "No, you have not," she answers with a slight giggle.

"See. Nothing to worry about then. Now come on," I instruct, moving my hand to the small of her back to guide her to my jet, the Blackwing as I like to call it. On a side not, I am a little interested to see the trainees reactions when we arrive, so I am looking forward to getting there, but we'll see how this goes. It's going to be interesting. That's for sure.

* * *

 **Next chapter Kori meets the team, we learn a bit more about the members, and Nightwing is spending a little more time at Mount Justice, but why? Keep up the reviews guys. You all are my motivation.**


	5. Chapter 5

**I'm sick guys, so sorry if the chapter isn't the best. My mind is so clouded, but I think it's okay. Keep up all the support. It has been amazing how well this story has been received so far.**

* * *

 **Dick's POV**

 **Saturday, September 25th - 8:00 PM**

 **Pacific Ocean**

My jet flies over the water of the Pacific Ocean, Kori in the passenger seat as we make our way to Mount Justice. She has been quiet the majority of the ride, probably reflecting on the long day she has had. Well, scratch that. I should say, the long last six years she's had. This must be the safest she has felt in a very long time. I can't imagine what that feels like to her. At the very least she must feel a little shell shocked. I mean, how could you not?

We are only about ten minutes out from Mount Justice when she finally turns to me, her eyes having a questioning look in them. "Why do you wear the mask? I think your eyes are most beautiful. Why do you feel the need to cover them? Is it normal for your people? Many of the ones I have seen today had masks, but some did not. Why?"

Wow, was that really what she has been thinking about this entire time? Masks? More than likely it isn't, but it did probably serve as means to take her mind off other, more troubling thoughts.

"Um, no. Normal humans don't wear masks. Mostly just heroes and the purpose is to hide who we are from the world, but you're correct. Not all of us wear masks. You see, some of them can shape shift or disguise themselves in different ways," I try to explain.

She cocks her head to the side. "What do you mean?"

"Well, for example, I'm not always a hero. Most of the time I look like a normal person. When I'm in this," I motion to my uniform, "I am Nightwing, but outside of this uniform, out from behind this mask, I'm someone else with a different name and life. It's pretty much the same for everyone else too."

"So, when you are not Nigthwing, who are you?" Kori asks.

She is really good at asking questions. Let me try to explain this. "Well, I can't really tell you. It's a secret kind of. Very few people know who I am outside of this uniform. See, if the wrong people, the ones we fight against, found out who we were, they could target people we care about in order to get to us."

She continues. "I see, but the other heroes do not know who you are, either?"

"Some of them do. Ten or so members of the Justice League, five of the ones you fought earlier, but that's it. I grew up with the Flash, Troia, Aqualad, and Red Arrow, who I'm sure you'll meat again very soon. We were kind of the beginning of the second generation of heroes and they are some of my best friends, so of course all of them know who I am. And the one in the red suit with the black hair called Robin, he's my adopted little brother. You see, I was the very first Robin a long time ago before I became Nightwing. Batman was both of our mentors and kind of raised both of us, which is another reason not just anyone can know who we are. If they figure out our identities, it wouldn't be that hard to decipher his and neither one of us want that to happen."

"I see," Kori nods in apparently understanding. "So, the ones you call your friends, you told them who you are because you trust them, yes? Because you know for a fact that none of them will tell anyone who you are?"

"Well, yeah," I acknowledge as I make a slight right turn.

"So, if you and I were to become close friends as you have with them, then you would allow me to see that side of your life, yes?" Kori reasons.

I don't know what is going to develop out of this, but what I do know is I am way to worn out to discuss all of these hypothetical questions, so I just decide to agree. "Sure."

"Glorious," she claps.

A slight smile crosses my face. It's amazing how easily she can find things to be happy about after being a slave for six year. For most, that would be horribly traumatizing, but maybe she just feels really lonely on the inside and the idea of having a friend is exciting for her, which is why I'm happy she is going to be at Mount Justice. I'm busy a lot, both as Nightwing and Dick, therefore I won't have much time to entertain her, so I am hoping she bonds well with the Titans. I mean, I'm sure she will after they get over the whole thing about her kind of beating them up.

Speaking of Mount Justice, I finally see it come into view. "There it is," I point out to Kori.

Her eyebrow furrows as she looks in the direction I motioned in . "Where? All I see is a Mountain."

"That's kind of the point. It is supposed to be a secret after all," I smirk. Just for fun, I speed up as we near the lower part of the mountain range and I glance out of the corer of my eye, seeing Kori holding onto her seat for dear life, fearing we're going to crash into the mountain's side wall, but at the last second two hidden stone doors begin to open and we jet through before the doors quickly shut behind us, and we come to a smooth landing in one of the bays. Once the jet is off, I turn and look over at Kori, a smile on my face. "Scare you?"

"I am a warrior of Tameran... but yes," she admits with an embarrassed blush.

I laugh as I press a button to open the hatch of the jet. "Sorry about that. Let's go." I leap out, landing softly on my feat, Kori floating down to the ground beside me. "You ready?" I ask her as we begin to walk toward the entrance to the common room.

She looks down. "I do not know. I must admit, I am nervous that they will not accept me after our misunderstanding earlier."

"Trust me. I got this," I assure her. "Just follow me in, okay?"

She nods and we walk though threshold leading into Mount Justice's common room. When I enter I find most of the group is in the room, up to all sorts of activities. The little green one, Garfield I think he's called, has transformed himself into a gorilla and is arm wresting Victor on the coffee table, Karen busy watching him. There is one peace of pizza in a box just beside the table and I assume that is what that is all about.

Tim, still in his Robin get up just as I would expect, Virgil, and Jaime are all on the common room couch playing some video game on the large flat screen television, and the floating girl in the cloak, who no one seems to know anything about, Raven I think, is off in the far corner reading some kind of odd looking book. Conner is missing, probably off locked up in his room. Wally told me he was having a hard time buying into the program, his anger issues and stubbornness getting in the way of his potential.

Garfield is the first to notice me and instantly stands up to great me, halting his competition with Victor and changing back to his human form. "Dude, what's up?" he exclaims, clearly excited. "Why are you here? Do you have another mission for us? Or are you here to back brief us about what happened today? By the way, you were awesome out there! That alien girl didn't know what hit her!" Wow, he talks fast.

Before I can say anything in response, Kori walks up slightly behind me and everyone in the room obviously notices this because they all instantly stand to their feet as if preparing for round two. "Relax," I demand. "She's with me. She's okay.

"Relax? Bro, did you see what she did to us earlier?" Virgil retorts, clearly confused as I'm sure everyone else is.

"Earlier was a misunderstanding.," I attempt.

"Those eye beams she blasted us with were no misunderstanding," Karen throws back.

Kori finally steps up beside me. "I do apologize for anything I did to harm any of you earlier. When I emerged from the pod, one of you, whoever wears the blue armor, had a cannon drawn. In the mind state I was in, I saw this as a threat and attacked." Everyone in the room simultaneously looked at Jaime, who was staring down at the floor to avoid everyone's gaze, an innocent whistle coming from his mouth. Slowly all their eyes came back to us. "I would like to introduce myself properly. I am Koriand'r." She pauses and looks at me briefly before turning back to them. "But I do enjoy being called Kori, and I am from the planet Tameran in the Vegan system."

Everyone is quiet for a long moment, just standing there exchanging unsure looks with each other, but finally Victor steps forward and walks toward her, extending his hand out with a friendly smile. "Hi, Kori. I'm Victor... or just Vic. It's good to meet you... you know, under better circumstances this time."

She looks at me, uncertain of what to do with his hand, so I lean down and explain it to her the best I can. "It's an Earth greeting. You're supposed to shake his hand with your own for a few seconds."

She nods before turning her attention back to Victor, who apparently goes by Vic. "It's nice to meet you as well, Victor... Vic I mean "

Garfield, who goes by Gar I guess, is next, followed by Virgil, Tim, a hesitant Karen, and Raven, who seriously could use some work on her social skills, literally only saying her name from across the common area before floating off to her room. Jaime is the last one, choosing to takw his time walking up to her. "Um, sorry about the whole cannon thing. I really didn't know how to react. First time in a situation like that," he apologizes.

Kori offers a smile. "No, it is okay. I should have waited longer before attacking."

"Not to ruin the greetings," Virgil begins, now sitting on the couch again, "But why are y'all here exactly?"

"Because, she is going to be staying here while she gets adjusted to Earth. All of you will treat her with respect, just like you would myself or any of your instructors. Are we clear?" I question in what I refer to as the Batman voice, which means complete and total seriousness.

Once again everyone just stares at each other before sounds of agreement begin to murmur out of the group. "Good," I respond before turning to Tim." "Robin, you're going to be in charge of making sure she gets settled in."

"Got it," he agrees with a nod. I know I can count on Tim at the very least. Everyone else... well, I'm not so sure.

With that handled I turn to Kori. "I have some things I have to get done, so I have to get going," I inform her in quiet tone to make it a private conversation.

Her eyes seem to be struck with a sudden burst of sadness. "But I... When will you return?" Hmm, it seems she really has developed an attachment to me. Odd.

I place a hand on her shoulder to comfort her. "Don't worry. I'll be back at some point tomorrow with clothes for you to wear and other things you will need. Sorry, I can't get you anything more comfortable to sleep in sooner," I apologize, looking over her uniform, which I know can't be comfortable.

"Oh, it is fine," She assures me. "I shall just sleep naked. It is far more comfortable anyway."

Not really something you say to someone you just met, but whatever. Her social skills can be worked on later. "Um, right," I respond with a cough and a slight eye aversion. "Yeah, uh, anyway, if you need anything or there's an emergency, just tell Robin. He'll know how to get in contact with me. Anymore questions?"

"Many, but I suppose they may till tomorrow." She looks down at the ground for a moment and begins to twiddle her thumbs again. "I am looking forward to our next encounter, Nightwing."

I just smile. "Rest well, Kori." And with that, I exit out the door, so ready for this day to be over, but I must admit, Kori is one interesting girl.

* * *

 **Dick's POV**

 **Saturday, September 25th - 11:00 PM**

 **Dick's apartment**

I lay on the black leather couch in my apartment's small living room, half asleep and only vaguely aware of the television playing in the background. In fact, I am almost completely out when I hear the door bell ring, causing me to jump up in a combat position only to frown when I realize that it is just someone at the door. I glance at my phone, seeing it's eleven at night, and sigh. What could anyone possibly want this late? I swear if this Wally playing ding dong and ditch again I will cut his legs off the next time I see him.

Frowning like a grumpy old man, I drag myself toward the door, wearing nothing but gym shorts and a scowl. Opening it, I am surprised to find a skinny, beautiful, red head also known as Babs, AKA Batgirl, standing there. "You didn't answer my text," she says with a glare, clearly upset at me for something.

"Hey to you too and for your for your information, I was asleep," I retort, crossing my arms over my chest as I move out of the way to let her in.

"Asleep? Dick come on! Remember we were supposed to go out tonight?" she complains as she walks through the door.

...Shit. I look her over, finding that she is in a short black dress and hills and then it all comes back to me. Last week I agreed to go to a new club that was opening in downtown Gotham with her. Oops, my bad... But I do have a solid excuse. "Well, if you haven't seen the news or been on social media today, I've been kind of busy. Alien girl crashes in California? Ring any bells?"

Her glare slowly fades away. "Oh, you were involved in that? What happened?"

I sigh as I make my way over to the couch and take a seat. "Long story short. There was a big fight with the Project Titan kids, Wally, Donna, Kal, and Roy and she was winning, so I stepped in. She was detained, interviewed, and it all turned out to be a big misunderstanding, so she is staying at Mount Justice until she adjusts to Earth. I kind of been put in charge of walking her through everything though."

Babs nods before taking a seat beside me. "Oh, sorry I snapped then." I then notice her begin to look over me body and a slow playful smile begins to creep across her face. "You know, I could be persuaded to stay in with you tonight."

Instantly catching on, I smile back. "How's that?" Babs and I have been playing this very same game for years. It started as just flirtatious teasing when I was about fourteen and she was fifteen, but it slowly progressed farther in and farther and eventually we started hooking up sexually from time to time at the age of sixteen. We never really have ever discussed dating, always preferring to keep things as simple as possible, but if someone asked me if I had feelings for her the answer would be yes. What those feelings are I don't exactly know for sure.

She lays back on the couch, tossing her long red hair to the side. "I don't know. Come find out."

I smirk slyly and slowly crawl on top of her, sliding my hands up her stomach to her breasts before closing the distance between our mouths. Needless to say, it didn't take long for her black dress to find its way to the floor

* * *

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Sunday, September 26th - 1:30 PM**

 **Mount Justice**

Nightwing walked through the doors of the training bay, at least five large bags of items ranging from clothes and shoes, to shampoo and various perfumes in his hands. After his... activities with Babs the night before and a ten hour sleep following that the two spent the morning at the mall, buying everything Kori could possibly need. Dick was glad Babs was there, otherwise he would have been completely lost to say the very least.

The Flash, who was in the middle of telling the trainees some heavily exaggerated story of his past brave heroism instead of teaching them like he should have been, stopped mid sentence when he noticed his friend approaching. "Excuse mefor one moment," he said before jetting off to Nightwing's side. "Seeing you two days in a row? To what do I own the pleasure," he exclaimed, throwing his arm over his friend's shoulder.

Nightwing frowned at him. "I'm here to see Kori and give her this stuff Babs and I got her. Where is she?"

The Flash shrugged. "Don't know. Haven't seen her. I didn't even know she was here until they started blabbing about it. How'd that even happen if the first place? It's not everyday we take someone in after they shoot laser beams from hell at us."

"I'll tell you later," Nightwing replied, not wanting to get into that right now. He then turned to rest of the group. "Anyone know where Kori is?"

Robin spoke up first. "She ate a little last night, and pretty much locked herself inside her room after that. Haven't seen her since."

"She probably feels uncomfortable," Troia added. "I mean, she did move in here the same day she fought us. We weren't exactly the best welcoming party."

"I better go see if I can talk to her," Nightwing responded before beginning to head out of the room, leaving everyone behind to continue "training". He walked past the pizza box filled living room and into the hallway where he found a total of fifteen platinum doors, eight of which had names of the trainee they belonged to on the front of them. He guessed Kori's was the closest one with no name tape, so he headed for it and knocked. "Kori, it me, Nightwing," he called.

With an insane amount of force the door almost instantly swung open and the girl flew out of the room, hugging him with a force that would have broke his back if it weren't for his suit. "Nightwing!" she exclaimed in utter joy. "It is glorious that you have returned! I was beginning to fear you would not." She really had a puppies mentality, which was the slightest bit funny.

She let go, leaving Nightwing to pant a moment as the air refilled in his lungs. He made a mental note to talk to her about controlling her strength when she got excited before he began to talk. "Good to see you too. I got you everything you'll need," he motioned toward the bags in his hand. "Um, I don't really know the Tameranian anatomy, but if you have questions about anything, I'd talk to Troia. She can help you with that... um, stuff far better than I can."

"Um, very well," she replied, not really sure what he meant as she took the bags from him and placed them beside the door in her room. "Once again, thank you for taking care of me like you have. I have never met anyone as kind."

"Don't worry about it," he waved her off. "But I heard you been locked up in here since last night. What's going on? You have to be starving by now."

She shook her head. "When I was a slave, there were periods where I went very long amounts of time without any food and this room is not so bad to be in. It is much better than the cage the Gordanians kept me in," she answered and he felt his heart drop into his stomach. It was just another glimpse into what she went through the last six years.

He placed his hand on her shoulder. "Kori, you don't have to live like that anymore. Here you're safe. He're you're free. You can eat when you want to eat, sleep when you want to sleep, and hangout with everyone outside of your room. You have nothing to fear here, okay?"

She looked down at the floor. "It is just a big adjustment. Truthfully I am not sure how to act here or around the others. I do not know what to do or what to say or how to be apart of this. All I know is that I enjoy being around you."

She is honest, so open about how she feels, that he couldn't help but to smile a little. Maybe, he was growing a little attached to her himself. "Well, as long as you're here you will be seeing a lot of me, but how about we go watch the group train?" he suggested, knowing it would be a good idea to get her around everyone.

She hesitantly noded in agreement, so he placed his hand on the small of her back and began to lead her there, but before they walked into the bay, Nightwing came to a complete stop, finding that someone else had entered the building and was now standing commandingly in front of the entire group. The Batman.

* * *

 **There you have it. Next chapter we find out why Batman is there, Kori integrates herself into the group after a little forced family bonding, and Nightwing may help out with training a little. Keep up the reviews guys. The story is doing amazing right now.**

 **PS. For those who have been asking about a sequel to The Story Of Us, well... It's happening!**


	6. Chapter 6

**I really love this chapter and I hope you guys will too. Also, I was asked if Babs would be a major part of the story. This story is more of an action than a drama, but that's not to say I'm going to make things easy for Kori and Dick. Easy is boring and nobody wants that. Hope you guys enjoy!**

* * *

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Sunday, September 26th - 1:40 PM**

 **Mount Justice**

'Oh boy, this can't be good,' Nightwing thought to himself from the threshold of the common room and the training bay, Kori standing at his side.

"What is happening?" she whispered into his ear.

He shrugged, not taking his eyes off the scene in front of him. "Don't know, but if he's here, it probably means someone is in trouble."

Up in front the group, Beast Boy gazed at the Batman in utter amazement, but he found himself to be unsure if should be ecstatic that one of his idols was in front of him or horrified at the fact that the said idol did not look happy with the group. Then again, in every picture he'd ever seen of Batman, he didn't look happy in any of them, so maybe he just had one of those faces.

The Dark Knight began to slowly walk past each member of the the group, the same cold glare on his masked face as he passed each of them. "Yesterday, I trusted you with your first mission. Simply look into an anticipated spacecraft landing in the dessert just off Las Angeles and you all failed to preform to standard." He stopped in front of Blue Beetle, causing the teen to begin to shake slightly. "You decided to draw your weapon before taking into account that girl was not attacking." He then moved on to Bumble Bee. "You decided to take it upon yourself to attack without being given an order by your leader." Next he turned to Troia. "You couldn't regain command of your team once you lost it and failed them as their team leader."

Batman then placed himself directly in the middle so that he could see everyone. "The rest of you also failed. At no time during the altercation did any of you show any ability to work as a team. You're lucky that none of you died out there and if Nightwing hadn't shown up and saved your asses I'm half convinced that at least one of you would have."

A long pause. "My point is this. You are the future of this planet's security, but if you can't even handle one Tameranian girl, as powerful as she may be, how are you going to handle a threat like Doomsday or worse? You need to realize that you are not twelve heroes anymore, you are one unit and you need to learn to fight as such. Instructors," he began, adverting his attention to specifically them, "it is your job to teach them how to handle situations like the one yesterday, and so far you are failing. We entrusted you with this job because we know you are capable of handling it, don't make us regret that decision, understand?"

All four nodded, the Flash deciding to leave out his usual smart ass comment. It just wasn't the time for that.

Batman nodded back. "Continue with your training. I'll be in touch when we have something for you." With that Batman headed out of the room, but not before glancing in Nightwing and Kori's direction. Nightwing knew Batman showing up to scold the Titans was all just a front to come check on Kori's status. It may have fooled everyone else, but not him. He knew him to well for that.

Once Batman had cleared out, the training resumed. Nightwing payed close attention, from where he now leaned against the back wall, Kori standing at his side. He saw the way they fought, the way they moved. It was all just off, all disorganized and frantic like they hadn't had single class. It made him itch on the inside. Growing up under the tutelage of the Batman, he'd been taught that everything down to the smallest detail had to be perfect, otherwise you would eventually fail and failure was not an option because innocent lives were at stake.

When Beast Boy transformed into a Rhino spontaneously, knocking down his partner, Static, in the process, it was the last straw for the masked hero. "Stop! Just stop!" Nightwing yelled, as he began to walk over to the team, Kori following behind like a lost puppy. He just couldn't take it anymore. "You guys have no ability to work as a unit. It's not that complicated."

He let out a sigh, calming himself. "You have to think about it this way. You all have an ability that makes you an asset to the group. Beast Boy, you can change into any animal you want at will. Cyborg, you have a brain that literally works like a super computer, plus you have an insane strength level. Static, you can control electricity and manipulate magnetic fields, but as cool as all of those things are, I can think of a hundred different ways to beat each of you because you all still have flaws, but if you work together, the areas you are weak in, your partner can make up for them with their strengths and you can make up for their weak points with your strengths."

"Me, for example," he motioned to himself. "I am a great tactical fighter and at using strategy to overcome my opponent, but I'm not as strong as someone like Aqualad, I can't fly Like Troia, hit a target from a mile away like Red Arrow, or run like the Flash. I would need them to do something that would require their skill set, but they may need me to form a plan to take down someone to powerful for them to beat alone or to successfully complete a mission. Everyone understand what I am saying?"

Everyone nodded, somewhat getting the concept he was talking about. Now, if only they could put into action.

Flash smiled, leaning his arm on Troia. "You know, for someone who wanted no part in this, that sounded a lot like teaching to me."

Nightwing just rolled his eyes under his mask, but on the inside he had to admit, he did enjoy instructing them and teaching them the same combat philosophy Batman had taught him over the years. "Whatever. Just run them in two on two matches again."

"You heard the man," Aqualad called out, taking control of the recruits. "Team up. Two on two, just like before."

They did as told and began to spar with each other. To everyone's surprise though, they seemed to be doing better. Beast Boy and Cyborg in particular worked extremely well together, Cyborg tossing the changeling, who had turned into a rat at their opponents, before he changed into an elephant in mid air. Robin and Superboy even seemed to work pretty well together, Superboy using his strength to pin their opponents down, while Robin planted a tranquilizer from his utility belt on them, which would go off on his command. It really was a vast step forward, but still, there was someone who wasn't quite impressed with them. Kori.

"I don't mean to intrude on your training, but may I say something to them?" she questioned Troia, catching her off guard slightly.

"Um, sure. Go right ahead," the young amazon agreed. If it would help them then why not, right?

"Excuse me," Kori spoke up, causing everything to stop momentarily as she stepped forward. "I do not wish to stop your training, but I just want to point out something." She glanced at Nightwing, who had his arms crossed and was curiously looking on as was everyone else. "Many of you tend to use such force that you forget to defend yourselves. I could most likely rip your rib cages from your bodies without much trouble," she informed. Everyone looked at her wide eyed, but not because of what she said but how she said it, as if it were no big deal whatsoever, which to her it may not have been.

"If you will allow me, I would be happy to show you a Tameranian technique that will allow you to strike using your full power, while guarding yourself as well," she continued.

"Um, yeah, go ahead," Troia instructed, giving her the floor. She wasn't about to deny a girl talking about removing rib cages.

Kori nodded and moved on. "When some of you take an offensive position and attack, your arms are too far apart, but if you lower you non striking arm and place it close to your body, you may guard yourself far more effectively and still be in a position to deliver a powerful blow." She then demonstrated the stance placing her left arm lower, almost against her ribs with her palm facing outwardly, and her right arm up, ready to strike any opponent with a violent hit.

It looked odd, different than anything any of them had ever seen, but as they began to try it, they realized the girl knew what she was talking about, it helping them not only block attacks directed at the body, but the head as well. It was a solid technique, and very helpful to the ones who favorited close combat fighting such as Bumble Bee and Superboy. Hell, even Nightwing, Troia, and Aqulad found the technique very interesting.

Interesting the two biggest contributors to the days training, Nightwing and Kori, weren't even apart of the team.

The training continued for the next hour or so before it was eventually called to an end after some major strides forward. The group began to drift back to the common room to hang out, Kori even going with them as she explained more techniques she knew. Nightwing couldn't help but to smile as he looked on, happy that she was slowly finding her place within the group.

"Well, that was interesting," Aqualad commented once the trainees and Kori were all gone.

"They certainly made some improvements ," Troia added.

Red Arrow sat down, arms resting on his knees. "They still have a long way to go though. They're still sloppy in a lot of areas and are only starting to grasp the concept of working together."

"I don't get it," Nightwing began. "We didn't need to be drilled on how to work together. It just happened."

"Well," Wally interjected, throwing his arm over Nightwing's shoulder. "We also hung out a lot more than these guys. I mean willingly, not being forced to live together. Every weekend we were at the mall or the movies or just something. We knew how each other thought, so we never had to be drilled on stupid things like this. It just came naturally."

"Wally, you are genius!" Troia exclaimed, trowing her hands up excitedly.

"First time he's been excused of that," Nightwing joked, earning a laugh from everyone except the Flash, who just frowned at his friend.

"I'm choosing to ignore that," he stated before turning to Troia. "But how am I a genius exactly... not that I am saying I don't completely agree with you because I do."

"Think about it. All they do is train and hang around here," Troia began. "Maybe if we got them out as a group then they would bond a little better. We should take them somewhere. Isn't the Gotham fair in town, Dick?" she asked.

"Yeah, but how are we going to take Cyborg and Beast Boy out there? We can throw some sun glasses on Kori and everyone will just think she's a girl with dyed hair and a tan, but that won't work for them. They will stand out even in a city famous for a giant bat the flies around and fights crime," Nightwing answered.

"Hologram rings!" Flash announced loudly, happy that he was two for two on good ideas for the day.

"What?" Everyone else questioned simultaneously.

"Uncle Barry was developing some hologram rings for Star Labs a few years ago. They can disguise anyone's appearance who is wearing them. The funding got cut, but not before the prototypes were finished. I could totally get them," he explained.

"Well, I guess it settled then," Aqualad stated. "We're going to the fair tonight."

* * *

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Sunday, September 26th - 6:00 PM**

 **Mount Justice**

Dick, in a pair of sunglasses and a baseball cap to hide his identity, sat on the common room couch of Mount Justice, Wally by his side in civilian clothes as the pair waited for everyone else to get ready to go. Dick wasn't sure about all of this at all. Any number of things could go wrong with this plan, but he'd just see how it went.

It didn't take long for Kal and Roy to join them, followed by Raven, who wore a simple dark blue shirt and black pants, and the rest of the boys. Vic and Gar specifically were ecstatic to appear normal if only for a night. It was hard for them to go anywhere without being stared at, so this would be a very welcomed change. Everyone was sitting around the couch, listening to Wally tell one of his stories that his friends had heard a million times, but the recruits were enthralled by, when a voice from behind got all of their attentions. "Do I look nice?"

Everyone turned to find Kori standing at the far threshold to common room, wearing a purple crop top that showed off her toned stomach and large breasts, and pair of grey skinny jeans that really flattered her rather impressive... assets. Babs could really pick an outfit.

"Holy boob" Wally whispered. "Dude, Is it weird that I am really attracted to her?" he asked his friend.

Dick just shook his head, amazed by how incredibly hot she was. The black uniform she had been wearing certainly had been doing a great job of hiding what was underneath to say the very least. Remembering she had asked a question, Dick stood from the couch and walked over to her. "You look amazing, Kori," he smiled charmingly, causing her to blush furiously.

From the couch, Wally frowned. "We aren't even at the fair yet and he's already picking up girls. You see, why I can't take him anywhere," he said to no one in particular.

Karen appeared from behind Dick and Kori moments later and gazed out at the group. "Well, what are we waiting for?"

Everyone just stared at her with bland expressions.

* * *

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Sunday, September 26th - 7:30 PM**

 **Gotham fair**

The Gotham City fair. It came once a year for two weeks before packing everything up and moving onto the next city. Once the entire group arrived and headed inside the gate, they all began to split up. Dick and Kori, who seemed to be becoming really close, headed off to ride the various rides. Wally and the rest of the instructors ventured off to do their own thing. Conner and Tim decided to play some of the games in a quest the cheat the fair out of their prizes with Tim's accuracy and Conner's strength, and Gar, Vic, and Karen all walked around together, leaving Raven being the only one by herself.

Vic noticed this, seeing her sitting on a bench, looking rather uncomfortable and a little lonely,and he couldn't help but to feel sad for her. He knew what it was like to be alone. They all did. Before he came here, before he met Gar, who despite all odds had became the best friend he probably had ever had, he was on his own, no one in the world he could talk to about the pain he was feeling inside. He didn't really know anything about Raven's backstory, but he guessed she felt the same way. "Hey bro," he said to Gar, getting his attention.

"Yeah?" he questioned, swallowing the cotton candy he was eating on.

"Why don't you go talk to Raven? She looks lonely over there," he nodded to her.

"Dude, I've tried to talk to her before. She wants nothing to do with me," Gar retorted, throwing his arms up in the air in protest.

"I know, but think about it, man. She's probably been rejected by people so many times that she's scared to let anyone close to her, but that doesn't mean we should give up one her. You two are the youngest ones here. If she's going to open to anyone, it's going to be you," Vic reasoned.

Gar stared at him blankly. "You know, if this hero thing doesn't workout, you really should be a psychiatrist." With a sigh, the teen turned around and headed to where Raven sat. So much for this night being any fun. "Mind if sit here?" he asked her, trying to be as friendly as possible.

"Do what you want," She shrugged, looking in the opposite direction.

Things were awkwardly quiet for a moment, Gar trying to find something to say. "Listen Rae..."

"Don't call me Rae," She interjected sharply.

"Fine. Listen Raven, why don't we go ride something together? It would be fun," he attempted, trying to hide his growing frustration with her attitude.

"I don't have any interests in the kid rides," she retorted.

"Raven, you are a kid!" Gar reasoned. "I get that you probably been through some stuff. We all have, but that doesn't mean you have to act like this."

"You don't know the first thing about me," she seethed, beginning to become angry. How could he judge her when he didn't know what she had been through? The horrors she had seen?

"Because you won't let me know anything about you!" he yelled, catching her off guard. "Look Raven, everyone here has their own secrets, but I'm not as dumb as everyone thinks I am. I know you wouldn't have agreed to come here if you didn't want someone to try to understand you. You don't have to be alone anymore. I want to be your friend, we all do, but you have to let us."

She was quiet for a moment, unable to think of anything to say. Maybe he was right. Maybe she did need to open up more no matter how hard it was for her to do so. "I like to ride horses."

"What?" Gar questioned, it catching him off guard.

"I like to ride horses. You want to know something about me. It's a start, right?" she reasoned, looking at him with a small smile, the first he'd ever seen out of her.

He smiled back. "Yeah, it's a start. And you know if you want to ride me sometime, I can be a horse," Gar replied, but then he realized what he said didn't exactly come out right. "Oh man, I didn't mean... I...

"It's okay," she silenced him with a small laugh. "...does the offer to go on rides with you still stand."

He smiled, happy the potential major awkwardness was avoided. "Of course."

Over on the Ferris wheel, Dick and Kori rode side by side, both enjoying a hot dog as they stared into the night sky. "This yellow substance is most delicious," Kori exclaimed.

Dick laughed."It's called mustard."

She glanced down at her hot dog, memorizing the name of the yellow topping, before turning her eyes back to the starry sky above. "Yesterday, I did not feel comfortable here. I truly did not know if this was the right place for me, but now, I must say that I am finding I enjoy many of the things Earth as to offer." It was true. Earth had many amazing things. The night sky, fairs, mustard, the people she was learning to call her friends, mustard again, but most of all, the person sitting next to her. She didn't know much about him at all, but that was the scary part, because despite that fact she barely knew him, he already had her entranced. What was going to happen if they grew closer? Would these odd feelings deep in her stomach grown stronger too? She didn't know. She had never felt anything like it before, so how could she?

The rest of the night went fantastically for everyone, Dick and Kori riding everything there was to ride, Raven coming out of her shell a little, Conner and Tim amounting an insane number of prizes before passing them out to small children and cute girls, but little did they know that currently in the California dessert, another space ship was landing, one with something far more ominous that a lone Tameranian inside. Gordanians and they were here for one thing. Kori.

* * *

 **Cliffhanger, got to love them. Next chapter things get serious, but that's all I can tell you. Keep up the review guys and tell me what you think!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Sorry I'm a little late updating guys. My internet has been tripping out the last few days, but I think this chapter will make up for it. Also, I was asked about character ages, so I am making a list below.**

 **Dick - 19**

 **Kori - 19**

 **Donna - 20**

 **Wally - 20**

 **Roy - 21**

 **Kal - 22**

 **Vic - 23**

 **Gar - 15**

 **Jaime - 16**

 **Virgil - 16**

 **Tim - 16**

 **Conner - 16**

 **Karen - 20**

 **Raven - 15**

* * *

 **3rd person POV**

 **Monday, September 27th - 1:05 AM**

 **Mount Justice**

Kori, Dick, and the rest of the group returned to Mount Justice well after midnight and all were feeling pretty tired and ready to crash, the fair having taken a lot out of them, but none of them could say that they didn't have a great time. Dick and Kori were standing inside the landing bay where Dick's jet was, both leaning against the far wall, and smiling uncontrollably at each other as they talked. "So, you have fun tonight?" he asked her.

She yawned before smiling. "Yes, it was quite interesting." Kori then glanced down at the ground, a light blush covering her face. "I... I really enjoyed spending time with you. Per... Perhaps we may do it again soon? I do not believe I have anything on my schedule," she joked.

"Yeah, I'd like that. Maybe I can show you some spots in Gotham," he suggested.

"I would like that," she cooed. It was so odd to her. She had just met him, yet she felt so attached already. She wanted to spend every second with him, but it was difficult for her. She didn't know how to express the way she was feeling toward him. Was it appropriate to even feel such things for him? She wasn't even human after all, but regardless, every time he looked at her, her heart began to race and her stomach began to flutter. It was the strangest, yet the most wonderful of feelings.

"Good, I..."

"Hey buddy, you need to get in here now!," Wally called, zipping into the room from the common area. "We got a huge problem. Like code red shit!"

Dick could see that his normally carefree friend wasn't joking as he usually was and began to run toward the common room, Kori flying curiously behind him. Once inside, the duo found everyone standing around the television, mixed emotions ranging from horror to shock on their faces. They found themselves a spot to see what the commotion was, finding a giant, alligator or crocodile like creature on the television, the background looking like that of the inside of a space ship.

Kori covered her mouth with her hand as her heart fell into her stomach. She didn't have to hear anything that the creature was saying to know why he was here and what he wanted.

Everyone else just looked on as a message repeated over and over again. "I am Zaxal, General of the Gordanian army," he informed in a voice that sounded more like a growl than any kind of English, but the words were still able to be made out. "Eighty-seven Earth hours ago our command ship's central locating system reported to us that one of our Gordanian ships had been destroyed and a Tameranian slave girl had escaped. Thirty-three hours ago a Gordanian transportation pod crashed on Earth with the said slave girl inside. To the people of this planet, you are now harboring a dangerous fugitive of the Gordanian Empire and if she is not returned to us in two Earth hours, a thousand Gordanian troops will level this planet, one city after another until she is found. This will be your only warning, Earthlings."

"I'm guessing they are talking about you," Gar said half jokingly to Kori, trying to calm the situation.

"You were a slave?" Karen followed up. No one besides Dick and the seven Justice League members on the council had any idea about that part of her past, so the shocked looks on everyone's face wasn't much a surprise. Most of them just thought she was alien who crash landed here and received no more information than that, but apparently there was a hell of a lot more to the story.

"Yes," She replied, a brokenness in her eyes as she reflected back on her last six years with them, how horrible it was, the things she went through. It was enough to make her sick. "I was second in line for the throne of Tmaeran, my father being the Grand Ruler, which is similar to a king here on Earth. Tameran had been at war with the Gordanian Empire for many years and our resources were depleting as well as our planet was being destroyed, so in act of desperation to save his people, my father gave me to a Gordanian general in exchange for peace. I was a slave for six years and was forced to do things that I refuse to even speak of, but a few days ago the opportunity arose for me to make an escape, so I killed the guards watching over me and any other Gordanian scum I saw before blowing up the ship and making my get away in one of their transportation pods."

"Wow, that's intense," Wally breathed. He would have never guessed that she had experienced such things and it appeared everyone else thought the same judging by the shocked looks on their faces.

"And that's why they our after you? Because you escaped them?" Roy questioned.

She nodded sadly. "It is all my fault that they have came here."

"How did they even track her?" Donna inquired to Dick, figuring he had more information than any of them since he was actually at the Watch Tower. "I thought the ship was checked for any devices that could do that."

Dick nodded. "It was, but maybe they have a sensor in them that was missed. It was foreign technology after all." He paused for a moment trying to think things through. "Alright, everyone listen up. I'm going to call Batman and see if he is tracking what is happening. In the mean time, the rest of you gear up and Vic, I need you to trace the signal they are broadcasting and find out exactly where it's coming from, got it?"

"Rodger that," Vic acknowledged, connecting one of his many cords into the common area's super computer as everyone began to head to their perspective rooms to do as instructed.

"No, none of that will be necessary," Kori announced loudly, causing everyone to stop in their tracks. Once she had all their attention she began to speak. "I shall... I shall turn myself into them. You all were kind to take me in, but I am not willing to take the chance of any you getting hurt or worse because of me." She wasn't willing to put any of them at risk, especially the one she only knew as Nightwing. She truly cared about him. It was hard to explain.

Her head was sunk toward the floor, knowing and dreading what she had to do, but it raised once she felt someone place their hand on her shoulder. It was Dick, sunglasses off and everything causing her to fall into the beautiful, yet ghostly vastness that were his eyes "Kori, we aren't abandoning you and we sure as hell aren't letting those overgrown lizards take you anywhere. You belong here now, with us. We're your friends and friend's fight for each other."

She stared at him for a moment in awe before slowly looking around the room, seeing that everyone had the same look of determination on their face that he had on his. It was enough to bring tears to her eyes, which went against everything she had ever learned, but she had never felt like she was apart of anything like she did then. "Thank you. Thank all of you."

He nodded with a reassuring smile before turning to everyone else. "Look to the person to your left and right. This is why we fight. To protect each other. No amount stupid training sessions is going to make you a team. You become a team when you start caring about each other's well being, and you're willing to put your life on the line for theirs, so if you're apart of this, then let's go kick some Gordanian asses."

"Hell yeah!" Wally shouted at the top of his lungs feeling highly motivated at the moment... and ripping off his short for whatever reason. "Let's do this shit!"

Everyone just stared at him with questioning looks for a moment before the nostalgia took over and they all began to scramble once again, ready to go to war with a race that they knew nothing about for a girl that they just met, but oddly enough, each knew in their hearts that they weren't going to let those Reptar looking motherfuckers take Kori anywhere.

Once everyone was out of the room besides Vic, who was still tracking down the signal, Dick turned to Kori. "I promise, no one is going to take you anywhere, Kori. We're going to stop them."

She smiled. "I do not know what to say. I..."

"You don't have to say anything. Just go find something to wear. We're about to give them a reason to never come after you again," Dick interjected. She could see the fire in his eyes and her own began to burn green, feeding off his intensity. Yes, she would give them a reason to never return along with the help of the ones she could now call her friends.

As Kori jetted off to her room to find something suitable for combat, Vic finally was able to pin point their location. "Hey wings, I got them" he informed, typing on the computer in order to zoom in.

"Where are they?" Dick asked, coming up beside him.

"The dessert. Right where she crashed," he replied.

"Then that's where we're headed."

* * *

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Monday, September 27th - 1:30 Am**

 **Mount Justice**

As everyone began to enter the common room, all geared up and ready to move out, Dick stepped into the landing bay, jumping into his jet to put on his own uniform before calling the Batman. One ring and he answered. "I was wondering when you were going to call." Well, obviously he already knew but then again, how could you not. It was broadcasting all over the television after all.

"Yeah, I was little caught up. I was just calling to make sure you were tracking the whole Gordanians threatening to invade if we don't give them Kori thing. Did our satellites not pick them up?" Nightwing questioned.

"No. We believe their ship has some form of anti tracking device on it, but don't worry about it. The Justice League already has the situation under control. Superman is readying a response team as we speak," the Dark Knight informed as if it were no big deal.

Nightwing shook his head from the other end. "Call them off. We are going to handle this. It's our friend, so it's our mission."

"Who is we?" Batman responded coldly even though he very well knew what his son meant.

"The Titans," Nightwing responded swiftly.

"I'm in charge of that team and I haven't given them orders to do anything," the Dark Knight retorted authoritatively.

Nightwing could feel his blood begin to boil. He wasn't Batman's little sidekick anymore and he could no longer tell him what to do. He was a grown man now and he could make his own choices. "Well, I'm taking charge of them now. From this point on this is my team and I say were going out on this."

"...Okay."

...What? Okay? Did he really just say okay? "What do you mean okay?" Nightwing asked suspiciously.

"I mean just what I said. Okay. It's your team, but if you haven't noticed you have something to handle, so I'd get on that," Batman said just as dryly as ever, but Nightwing could hear the sarcasm buried deep within his tone. Before a response could be given, the caped crusader hung up, leaving his somewhat confused son staring down at his phone blankly on the other end. What the hell just happened?

Something was definitely up. That was way to easy. Bruce normally argue with him persistently until Dick just gave up. And that's when it hit him. He had been played like a violin. Batman knew that if he let Kori stay, that Dick would be forced to hang around the team more. He probably even knew that there was a good chance that the Gordanians would come looking for her, and he absolutely knew that Dick would get involved when they did, so in the end, he would get exactly what he wanted all along. Nightwing leading the Titans. "That son of a..." Nightwing mummered to himself, remembering how manipulative his mentor was and how good he was at predicting how everything would play out.

Well, it was two late now. He was leading this mission. As the rest of the team entered the landing bay, Nightwing was sure of three things. One, if for some reason they got their asses handed to them out there, the Justice League would be waiting to end the conflict before it got out of hand. Two, he didn't want their help. He wanted to prove to not only Batman, but himself as well, that he could effectively lead in a all hell breaking loose situation. And three, Kori looked unbelievably sexy in what she decided to wear as her combat uniform. It was a very revealing purple leather leotard, that almost resembled lingerie, showing most of her stomach and a good amount of her breasts. This accompanied with knee high purple boots and silver wrist guards made her something drool at to say the least.

Once everyone had gathered around him, Nightwing fought to take his eyes off Kori and began to talk. "Alright, everyone listen up. I am going to be your mission commander and you'll take your orders from me while out there. If I go down, Troia will then take over. Our mission is to travel to the dessert, directly where we encountered Kori, defeat the enemy, and force them to leave Earth with a reason to never return. You are not authorized to kill, but that is not to say, you can't break a few bones and damage a couple internal organs, understand?" Everyone nodded. "Basically if they can walk back to their ship after this, you're wrong. Now, we don't know anything about them, so I'll turn it over to Kori to give us some information on them."

She nodded at Nightwing before stepping to the middle at his side. "The Gordanians have very tough skin, so do not be afraid to use your full strength on them. They also will be carrying weapons similar to tridents. Do not be fooled. They are not only designed for close combat. The tridents have the ability to fire lasers. You do not wish for those to hit you, so be quick."

"Any questions?" Nightwing asked crossing his arms over chest.

The Flashes hand shot up. "Is this like little league where we go out to eat after the game. If so, I have a few suggestions."

Regardless of the few snickers from some of the younger members of the team, Nightwing only frowned at his best friend. Only Wally could joke during the middle of alien invasion. "If they aren't any 'serious' questions, we can start loading up."

"I was serious," the Flash shrugged, but did as instructed and began to head to the a ship with a proclamation that he called shotgun, everyone else following him, but they all came to a stop when Raven spoke up. "Um, that may not be necessary."

"Why is that?" Nightwing questioned, turning to face her.

"I can teleport us there," she responded simply.

"You can?" Troia asked.

"Why didn't you mention you could do that?" Superboy added.

"No one asked," she shrugged. "Besides, I can only teleport tho places I have been before. This is the first time I've had the opportunity to do it since I been here."

"Are you sure you can get all of us there?" Nightwing inquired. Nightwing didn't remember reading she had that ability, and he guessed she had quite a few more, but right now all he cared about was successfully completing the mission.

She nodded with no hesitation, a confidence in her eye.

"Good enough for me," Red Arrow announced as he moved closer to her, everyone else following suit, making a tight circle with her in the very middle of it.

Raven took a deep breath and closed her eyes, imagining every detail she could about the dessert. The way the wind blew, the sand dunes, the rocky ridges in the distance. Everything. "Azarath Metrion Zenthos!" she shouted, her eyes blazing white. Suddenly, as if appearing out of nowhere, a giant, pitch black raven made of utter darkness appeared out the floor beneath them. The raven of darkness let out an ear piercing screech before wrapping the entire group in its mighty wings, completely enveloping them in a blackness unlike anything any of them had ever seen.

Just as quickly as the darkness had came, it vanished, the Raven along with it, but now, instead of standing in the landing bay of Mount Justice, they were in the dessert, the exact spot they had been just the other day, but now, where there had just been sand before, sat a ship so massive that it could easily hold a thousand troops.

"Dude..." Beast Boy whispered.

"Are you saying 'dude' because of the ship or the giant raven teleporting thing?" Cyborg asked.

"Bro... I don't even know," the changeling responded, not taking his eyes off the towering ship.

As if speaking of the devil, the ships hatch opened and a hideous looking, nine feet tall lizard creature stepped out, and it was clear that it was the same one from the television. As he moved forward, more and more began to storm out of the ship behind him, all just as vile looking. "Well well , humans, it appears as if you have brought us the prisoner. Excellent choice," the monster growled, staring down Kori as if she were something to eat.

Nightwing glanced at Kori, seeing she was ready to rip them apart, before stepping up in front of us his team, but left a good forty yards between himself and the horde of Gordanians. "Actually, we aren't here to turn her in. We're here to make you leave this planet and never return."

All the monsters began to laugh, which sounded like a collective loud gurgle. "Humans? Humans force us to leave? You are such a weak pathetic species. We live light years away and even we have heard of your fragile minds and bodies. We could concur this planet in an afternoon if we saw reason too, but your people aren't even fit as slaves."

"Then it's going to really suck when we kick your lizard asses, huh?" Nightwing smirked.

The creature growled. "Fine. Have it your way. Kill them all except the Tameranian! She's coming with us!" he ordered and the Gordanian army began to charge, trident like weapons drawn.

Two words. Two words that would change the world the second they were said. Nightwing looked at each members of his team, seeing they were ready for war. "Titans! Go!"

* * *

 **Nostalgia! I liked this chapter and obviously this one and the next one are heavily connected. Keep up the great reviews guys. I want this story to be the best I've done and your comments are helping shape it!**


	8. Chapter 8

**It's the weekend, so I decided to give you guys a quick update. Keep up all the great support!**

* * *

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Monday, September 27th - 1:40 AM**

 **California Dessert**

"Titans! Go!" Nightwing commanded, and on cue, the young heroes sprung to the offensive. Beast Boy transformed into a pterodactyl and took flight, picking up cyborg with his talons as he did. Once airborne, Cyborg began to fire his laser cannon at the green monsters, managing to take out far more than he could have from the ground.

Static and Blue Beetle covered each other as they blasted away at the beasts, while Nightwing and Robin fought through the huge horde head on, complimenting each other with their similar styles. Red Arrow had found himself a highly elevated sand dune just outside of the combat zone and was picking them off one by one with his flesh piercing arrows. Superboy and Troia were tossing the beasts around like rag dolls, them smashing into the ground with force each time, most not getting back up afterwards. Kori was raining a fury of her energy spheres down on them from above, hell bent on bringing them all down.

As the Gordanians attempted to fire their lasers at various members of the team, Raven, who stood in the back, just behind the conflict, meditated in the air, blocking each laser that neared one of her friends, making them untouchable from long distances. It was incredible. A night and day difference from the confrontation they had with Kori previously. They were working as one solid unit now and it was showing, them easily cutting through the Gordanian army like a knife through warm butter, but despite how well they were doing, there was still a great many Gordanians to go. It was as if for everyone they took out, there was two to replace it.

Nightwing knew they couldn't keep this up for much longer. He was getting tired, and as he glanced around the battlefield, he could see everyone else was as well. He needed a plan. He needed a way to take out mass amounts of their forces instead of just one or two at a time. Thinking for a moment, he quickly devised a strategy on how to do just that. He quickly found the Flash in the crowd of heroes and Gordanians and fought his way over to him. "Flash," Nightwing called, getting his friends attention.

"Hey, buddy," the Flash replied slightly out of breath from zipping around the battle field. "What's up?"

"We can't keep this up much longer. I need your help," Nightwing stated.

The Flashes face grew serious for a brief moment. "What do you need?"

Nightwing reached into his utility belt and pulled out ten palm sized black disks with a red beeping light in the center of each. "These are stun grenades. I need you to plant them all around the battle field, every from the ship to about thrity meters in front of Raven."

The Flash smiled as he took the devices. "I do know what you're up to, but I think I'm going to like it."

"Let me know once you have them planted," Nightwing instructed.

Flash nodded before disappearing with a gust of wind, returning just seconds later. "Done. Now what?"

"You'll see." Nightwing turned on his headset that each team member had in their ear to allow them to communicate while in the chaos of combat. "Everyone, listen up. Retreat back to beside Raven right now. That's an order."

Everyone seemed somewhat confused by the command, but did as told and immediately abandoned combat and quickly navigated the hundred or so yards to where Raven floated. Once there, everyone turned to Nightwing with questioning looks on their faces. "Why did you call us off? We were kicking their asses," Superboy questioned, wiping the sweat from his brow.

Nightwing glanced at the stampeding horde of the seven hundred or so Gordanians that were left before turning back to his team. "No time to explain. Just listen. Superboy and Kori, I need you to fire your eye beams at the ground all around them. Cyborg and Blue Beetle, do the same thing with your cannons. Raven, as soon as you hear an explosion, raise your shield around us as quickly as possible."

No one really knew what Nightwing was up to besides the Flash, but they all did as instructed. Kori fired her eye beams, Superboy his heat vision, and Cyborg and Blue Beetle their laser cannons. And then it happened. One loud explosion, followed by nine more quickly thereafter. Raven raised her barrier, it surrounding them like a giant bubble of dark energy. All they could see from inside was giant smoke clouds and sand that had been tossed in the air during the explosions. Screams of agony could be heard, but no one knew what was happening. This was the case for what felt like forever, but it was only a couple of minutes in actuality. As the smoke started to clear, they could see all one thousand of the Gordanians, laying on the ground shaking furiously and screaming out in pain.

"What just happened?" Troia asked, looking on at the scene in front of her.

"I got the Flash to plant some stun grenades in the ground. Batman developed them for situations like this. Once detonated by heat, they release a nerve gas that affects all the muscles in the body, causing them to lock up and spasm furiously. It's supposed to be insanely painful," Nightwing explained.

"Dude, that's hardcore," Beast Boy stated in amazement. Just another reason to not piss off the Batman.

"Why don't I get any of those in my utility belt?," Robin asked, looking up at Nightwing, who just looked down at his adoptive brother and shrugged.

"How long will the nerve agent last for?" Aqualad asked.

"Six hours on humans. I'm guessing probably not nearly as long on them," Nightwing replied before turning to Raven. "We should be okay to breathe now. You can lower the barrier." Raven did as instructed and lowered her protective shield, but was a little hesitant to breathe until she saw the Flash do it and considering he didn't fall to the ground in horrible, agonizing pain, she thought she would give it a go and hope she was just as lucky.

Things looked to be over, but then, in the front of the pile of Gordanians, one began to talk. It was General, Zaexal. "I... I will not allow you to embarrass us this way!" he roared as he crawled to his feet, his body still convulsing from the nerve agent coursing throughout him. It was unbelievable that he was even able to move, let alone stand. It had to be pure pride driving him at this point. "I am Zexal, General of the Gordanian army and I will not be..."

Before he could even finish his sentence, Kori blasted off at him like a rocket shooting into space, her eyes blazing green with fury. She tackled him, and still blazing through air, carried his massive body before slamming him into his ship with such force that it left a Gordanian shaped dent in its metal. She pinned him there by his neck, chocking him as she floated just high enoughso she could glare into his eyes. "I do not care who you are! I am Koriand'r, warrior princess of Tameran and I am no longer your slave and I shall never be again!" She looked back at her friends, who were standing over a football field away, looking on in awe, before turning back to the monster in front of her. "I will not kill you out of respect for my new friends and and the customs of my new home, but I was told to give you a reason to never return and I shall."

She glanced down at his body before blasting her eye beams into his chest, melting his skin on contact and causing him to scream out in pain. When she decided he had enough, she ceased her attack and looked back into his eyes. "That mark will scar. You will have it the rest of your life, just like I shall the scars in my mind for the things your kind did to me. Every time you see it, let it remind you of the pain you are feeling right now and I do hope it gives you reason to never seek me out again because the next time I see any or your kind, I will not be so generous. Do you understand?" she seethed, squeezing a little harder on his neck, causing him to cough up blood in the process.

He nodded, unable to talk before she tossed him to ground where he clinched his burning chest and shook, blood now dripping from his mouth. "I shall now give you a timeline. You have one Earth hour to get your vile creatures on your ship and leave my planet before I leave more memories on your body. Your time starts now. I suggest you move with haste."

With one final glare with those green eyes of fire, she flew off back to her friends, coming to a soft landing beside Nightwing. "What did you say to him?" he asked.

She smiled at him, her eyes returning to normal. "Do not worry about it. I promise he shall not return for me though. Let us just say I gave him a lot to reminisce about on his long way home."

Everyone traded glances with each other, wondering what she had did to him, but if they were leaving then it didn't really matter all that much. The Gordanians began to recover from the nerve gas about fifteen minutes later, and under Zaxal's orders, began to limp and crawl back onto the ship, which met Kori's timeline, them taking off with a good twenty minutes to spare. Zexal certainly didn't want any more memories to take home with him. The one he already had would be bad enough.

As soon as the ship departed Nightwing's phone began to ring and seeing that it was the Batman, he picked up. "Yeah?"

"Impressive," the Dark Knight responded simply.

Nightwing looked around at his team and smiled, pride building inside of him. Maybe this really was the start of something great. "Yeah, we were."

* * *

 **Kori's POV**

 **Monday, October 4th - 12:30 PM**

 **Mount Justice**

It has been one Earth week since the Gordanians have left, and things here have been... nice, I suppose is the word, since then. I do not believe I have ever been this happy in my entire life. When I landed here, I thought I would simply just attempt to survive and hope the Gordanians did not find me, but now I have friends, people who I care about and who I know care about me. It truly is the most wonderful feeling. At first, I felt very uncomfortable here, having fought them not being the best introduction, but now I feel as if this is my home, here with them, something I'm not sure that I've ever truly had... even on Tameran.

Besides the wonderful people I have come to know since I have been here, Earth has many wonderful things as well. I love the sky, how beautiful it is both in the darkness of night and the warmth of day. The food is odd, but I have come to enjoy many things. My favorite is mustard, but pizza is a close second. I very much enjoy the movies as well. It is like watching a part of someone,s life happen right in front of you. What could be more interesting than that? So far, I am finding that romance movies are my favorite. I have learned much about Earth's strange romantic customs from them. Apparently lip contact, or kissing, is considered sensual here, unlike on my world where it's just a way to share knowledge. For them, it's a way to show affection for one another as well as touching, like hand holding or hugging. It seems that human sex is just the same as Tameranians... well, except for the fact that Tameranians sometimes fly during intercourse to express their joy.

Human relationships are just as odd as their physical customs. Tameranian royals are wed to other royals or great generals in order to produce the best possible offspring, but the normal Tameranians are monogamous creatures, meaning once they mate, they stay with the same person the rest of their life. Our emotions appear to be far more intense than humans, so once we fall in love, we will continue to love the same person no matter what. Humans may have many romantic partners throughout their lives and they have stages of relationships that I do not quite understand yet. There is the dating, the boyfriend and girlfriend, I believe it is called, and then, if the male presents his female partner with a ring, they become engaged, but if he gives her another ring, they are then married... or something like that. It is very confusing, but I am learning slowly.

Despite all those great things however, I would have to say my favorite by far is him. Nightwing, I mean. He is so... I am not even sure how to describe him truly. All I can really explain is the way that I feel when I am around him. He makes me nervous and happy and excited all at the same time, and I have no explanation as to why. Even though he has been around more since he took over leadership of this team they have, I do not spend any more time with him than I do anyone else, so why is it that I feel so attached to him?

Every morning, I wake up and go into the common room and just sit there, pretending to watch Vic and Beast Boy play their video games or watch a movie, but really I am waiting for him. The level of excitement I feel when I hear the landing bay's doors open and see his plane land is unparalleled. I have never felt anything like it before. I always am the first to greet him and he always greets me back with his wonderful smile that makes my legs shake slightly. I have noticed that I have tendency to follow him around without realizing it while he is here. I do not think he notices and if he does, he does not seem to mind.

I have had many conversations with him. Some long, otherS not, but I still haven't managed to learn much about him like I have with everyone else. I know he is Robin's older brother and his best companion is Wally or the Flash. I often see them arguing with each other, but I sense they have a sibling like relationship. I know he is an expert in combat and a hero of Earth. I know he has the most addictively beautiful eyes that I have ever seen, but besides those things, I cannot say I know anything about him, which bothers me because I wish to know everything.

Even now I am currently leaning against the door between the the training bay and the common room, watching him and Robin spar, just trying to learn something about him that I do not already know. My eyes only come off of him when I see Donna come up beside me. "Hey Kor, what you doing?"

I look at her and offer a smile. "Greetings, Donna. I am... observing."

She looks at Nightwing and smiles before turning her eyes back to me. "Observing, huh? You like him, don't you?"

My eyebrows furrow at her. "Nightwing? Yes, very much. I like all of you."

Donna laughs and shakes her head. "No, I mean you have feelings for him. Romantic ones," she clarifies and my face turns red, the line of questioning catching me off guard.

"I... what... It is..." I stutter unsure of how to answer. A Tameranian having romantic feelings for a human? Was that even acceptable? "I do not know. Possibly. Yes. It is hard to explain."

She nods understandingly. "Well, try. Every girl needs another girl to talk to about these things. I'll see if I can help."

I look at him, focusing on the feelings that arise every time I see him. "He makes me nervous. My stomach does odd things when he is speaking to me. When he touches me, I feel as if the temperature in the room rises. I get sad when he leaves and I want to be around him all the time. That is all I really know."

"Yep, looks like you have a strong case of the feels," she replies pushing her long dark hair behind her ear.

"What am I to do about theses... feels, as you call them?" I question, turning my body to her, my eyes now pleading for help.

"Well," Donna begins. "You can do one of two things. Either ignore them, and hope they go away, which never seems to work. Or you can act on them. Let him know you are interested and see what happens."

My thumbs begin to twiddle. "Let us say that I do wish to act on them. Is it even acceptable for human to have a mate outside of their race? I mean, would he even find me appealing? I look different than human females and..."

"Kori, stop," she interjects, putting he hand on my shoulder. "You're gorgeous, regardless of what world you are from. Any guy can see that. And if you're worried about the whole biological difference thing, I think you look plenty like a human, and as long as you have the right parts, I don't think he will care in the least."

"Oh, you mean a vagina," I reason. "Yes, I am the same as human females in that aspect."

Donna just stares at me a moment before beginning to laugh, leaving me confused as to what I said that was funny. "Yeah, a vagina. See, everything should be fine. If I were you, I'd give it a shot. Who knows, you may be made for each other," she winks before reentering the common room, leaving me to look on at Nightwing from the doorway.

Perhaps we were. Perhaps the great X'hal placed me he here for a reason. Maybe I was destined to meet him all along. There is truly only one way to know for certain. I must take a chance... I just hope it is worth the risk.

* * *

 **Next chapter, as the whether gets colder things warm up between Dick and Kori and the team has a new mission, but something is about to go horribly wrong... Review guys!**

 **PS. I've been getting a lot of PMs lately about helping people with stories. Some seem very hesitant at first, but if any of you need help with a story, don't be afraid to hit me up. I'll love seeing how other people think.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Something went wrong with chapter eight, and it didn't show I updated. I've been waiting for it to get views before I posted this, but here you guys are. Keep up the reviews!**

* * *

 **Kori's POV**

 **Wednesday, October 6th - 11:00 AM**

 **Mount Justice**

It is a fairly normal day at Mount Justice, or at least what I have come to know as normal since I have arrived here. Gar, Vic, Jaime, and Virgil are sitting on the couch, playing some video game. Raven is sitting off in the quiet corner, reading her book as she frequently does in the morning. Conner and Robin are in the training bay, sparring with each other as they seem to have done everyday this week. Karen is sitting in the chair next to a mirror in the process of attempting to straighten her hair. And me, well, I am waiting. Waiting for him to show up. Nightwing.

I have been thinking very hard about what Donna and I talked about a couple of days earlier and I am most sure that I wish to explore these... feelings I am having for him, but at the same time I am terrified to do so. Possibly more terrified then my entire time with the Gordanians and I do not have the slightest idea as to why.

I suppose it could be that I am confused about how to express my interest to him. What do I say? I have watched quite a few romance movies searching for the answer, but in all of them, the male has been the one to express his feelings first. Nightwing has done no such thing... or maybe he has and I have just missed it? I do not know. I love this planet, but things here are so confusing and it is immensely frustrating.

I am lost in my thoughts when I hear the hanger doors open and I immediately pop up out of my seat and fly over to the common room door, finding all five members of the team's leadership, including Nightwing, exiting his jet. As usual he and the Flash are arguing about something, while the other three add in their input along the way. It is a little heartwarming to see how close the five of them are. I do wish that I had the same relationship with someone as they do with each other. I am willing to bet that there is not a thing about each other the rest of them does not know. How beautiful it is... to know someone's mind inside and out, I mean.

As they enter the common room, I smile widely at Nightwing. "Greetings," I say to all of them, but it is truly meant for him.

"Hey, Kor," they all respond. 'Kor' is an abbreviation of the Earth name Kori that Nightwing gave me, which in itself, was short for Koriand'r. It seems the longer I am here, the shorter my name gets.

As the Flash drifts off into the kitchen area to make himself a snack before the day's training, Nightwing settles himself on the arm of the couch, watching the boys play the game. I study him for a moment before glancing at Donna or Troia, as she is called while in uniform. She is looking from me to him with an exaggerated wideness in her eyes, which I think means she is instructing me to go talk to him.

I uncertainly nod at her before shuffling my way over to Nightwing. "Good morning," I greet, taking a set on the table in front of him.

"Morning. Sleep well?" he replies, looking down at me.

Why am I so nervous? Talking should not be this hard. "Yes, I did. Um, would you mind if I talked with you in private?" I question, looking around the room, seeing no one was actually paying any attention to our conversation, but still, I would fill vastly more comfortable if it was just us I do believe.

"Sure," he agrees, nodding understandingly before standing and beginning to make his way to landing bay, me walking behind him. Once inside and a fair distance from the door, he turns back to me. "Everything okay?"

I begin to shuffle, trying to decide what to say. I do not believe I can find a way to ask him if he will allow me to explore these feelings I am having or if he could possibly be having the same feelings, so what do I ask? I really should have thought this out a little more thoroughly I suppose. "No, nothing is wrong... I just... Well, you see... Remember when you offered to show me around Gotham? I wish to do that... with you." That did not come out as easily as I would have liked it too, but maybe, spending more time with him will allow me to understand how I am feeling and maybe even see how he feels.

He smiles, cocking his head to the side slightly. "Why did you feel the need to discuss this in private?"

My face turns red and I look down. I guess he does have a point. I could have simply asked him that in the common room with no one thinking anything of it.I shrug. "It was quite loud in there with the video games. I just thought it would be easier to speak out here."

By the way he is standing, arms crossed over his chest, I fear he knows I am lying, but if so, he does not say anything. "Well, okay. How about tomorrow? The weather is supposed to be decent. I think it'll be fun, but I do have a condition."

"Oh? What is the condition?" I question with a furrowed eyebrow.

"You've been seen on television now. People may recognize you in the streets and who I am outside of this uniform can't be seen with someone who has been seen with Nightwing. It would be too easy for someone to make that connection, understand?" he explains.

I nod. "Yes, but can't I just wear the sun glasses as I did at the fair? Would that not be enough to hide who I am?"

He shakes his head. "No, it worked at night, but I don't want to take the risk of taking you out there in the middle of the day. Anything could happen. However, I do have an alternative. Remember the rings Vic and Gar wore? You can borrow one of those and the only thing we will really have to change is your eyes. I can probably even talk Wally into letting you keep the ring. I mean, he let Gar and Vic keep the ones he gave them. Think about it like this. The mask hides my secret identity, just like the ring will hide yours."

I think for a moment before speaking. This could work out for the better. "And if I were to have this ring, I could go out into public more? We could do things together when you are who you are when you are not Nightwing?" I really wish I just knew his name. It would make things so much easier.

He smiles at me. "Yeah, I don't see why not."

"Glorious," I clap.

"I'll make sure I program the ring later today and I'll get it to you before I leave, okay?"

I nod, greatly excited about the opportunity to see him more often. I cannot wait for tomorrow.

* * *

 **Kori's POV**

 **Thursday, October 7th - 5:00 PM**

 **Gotham Park**  
I watch through my altered green eyes as brown, yellow, and red leaves slowly drift to the ground, blown from their branches by the Gotham's winds. Nightwing... or whoever he is when he is not Nightwing, decided to take me to Gotham Park, and we currently walk along the path in silence, me observing all the beauty of this world and him sipping hot chocolate, which he keeps in a silver cup with a black lid. It is cold for humans here, so I am wearing a purple hoodie and toboggan to blend in with everyone. Nightwing is as well, just his are black. He looks very good in black.

I look over at him, finding him staring into the distance with those amazing eyes of his. I feel the need to talk to him, but I am not even sure what to say. "Um, Night... I mean... I do not know what I am to call you."

He looks at me very seriously a long moment, making me feel strangely insecure. Did I say something wrong? "My name is Dick."

"Dick?" I question for some reason.

He nods. "Dick Grayson."

His name is Dick Grayson. That is who he is when he is not Nightwing! I know his name! I cannot believe that simple fact makes me so overjoyed, but it does. Maybe it is because that means we are growing closer to the relationship he has with his close friends. "You trust me?" I ask, hoping I know the answer.

"I wouldn't have told you my name if I didn't," he responds with a slight smile. "I know you won't tell anyone, Kor."

"I would never," I reinforce. "The fact that you trust me with something that very few people know is pleasing to me." I look away becoming a little nervous. "It makes me feel... special, I suppose."

He once again just stares at me with those blue eyes, colder than any planet I have ever been on. I get lost in his gaze, unable to turn away, no matter how much I want to. What happens next surprises me. "I want to show you something," he says, placing his hand on my lower back to guide me, sending chills up my spine in the process and I lean into him slightly.

We walk for a about twenty minutes, leaving the park and entering a far more crowded part of the city with a big white building called Gotham City Hall in it's center, but what is more interesting than that is what is in front of the building. A giant bronze statue of the Batman stands looking out over the city, arms crossed over his chest. I look over at Night... I mean, Dick, a questioning look on my face. "What is this purpose of bringing me here?"

"I want to tell you more about myself and I think this a good place to start," he explains before looking at the statue in silence for a moment. "When I was a young kid, I was part of a famous acrobatic group known as the Flying Graysons with my mother and father. We were here in Gotham when I was eight, putting on one of our regular routine shows... at least it was supposed to be routine. Before the show, a mob boss, a man by the name of Tony Zucco threatened the circus owner, saying that if he didn't pay him, he couldn't guarantee the safety of the performers or the audience, but the owner refused him."

He looks down, a deep sadness taking over his eyes. "Later that night, during my parents performance, their wires snapped, causing them to fall to their deaths. Later we found out that the wires had been cut and the case was ruled a murder. Everyone knew who was responsible."

"I... I am sorry, Dick. I'm sure this must have been tragic for you," I reply, nearly speechless.

Dick nods, looking at me with misty eyes. "It was, but luckily for me, their was someone in the audience that night that could relate to what I was going through. The Batman... or his civilian counterpart. He adopted me, and shortly after I figured out he was the infamous bat of Gotham that all the news stories had been talking about. He eventually saw that I had a unique skill set and took me under his wing to train me. Six months later I became the very first Robin and helped him fight crime here in Gotham for seven years."

The story is amazing and I am overjoyed that he was willing to share such a large and surely significant portion of his past with me, yet I am still curious why this is the spot to tell me such things. "Please do not misunderstand me. I am most pleased that you trusted me enough to tell me this about yourself, but why is here where you wished to tell me?"

"Well, you see, that's where the rest of the story comes in. Read what the plaque beside the statue says," he instructs.

I do as told, scanning over the golden writing at the bottom of the statue. "Dedicated to the defender of Gotham, a true hero and friend of the city, The Batman," I read aloud.

"Notice how Robin doesn't have his own statue or how the plague doesn't even say anything about him? That's because this will always be the city of the bat. I wanted to make my own legacy, one like he has, so I stepped out on my own to become Nightwing, my own hero that didn't have to live under the Batman's massive shadow. He didn't exactly agree with my choice to leave Gotham behind and are relationship has been a little rocky ever since."

Ah, I see now. The reason he brought me here is because the Batman is such a big part of him, at least his past, that this indeed would be the perfect place to share his story... or at least this part of it. I am absolutely positive there are many more things left to be shared, but I am content for now. "I thank you for sharing all of this with me. This may be foolish to say, but I am hoping it is one step closer to us becoming friends."

He raises an eyebrow at me. "We are friends, Kori."

I shake my friends. "No, I do not mean friends like you are with Vic or Gar. I wish to be friends like you are with Wally, Donna, Roy, and Kal. You are much closer with them than you are with everyone else. You spend time with them, a lot more than the rest of us. I guess... I guess what I want is for you to spend time with me like you do with them," I clarify nervously, praying to X'hal that I do not sound dim.

Our eyes meet and I feel like we are staring at each other for a long time, but then his phone rings, drawing his attention off of me... unfortunately. Reaching into the pocket of his black jeans, he pulls out his phone, frowning when he reads the name on the screen. "Hey, what's up?" He answers with a sigh.

I cannot hear whoever it is on the other end, but Dick's face grows serious as he listens to the person speak and I can instantly tell something is going on. "Okay, got it. We'll handle it," he says before hanging up.

"What is wrong?" I ask.

"Nothing's wrong," he begins. "Another mission just rolled in. I'll explain more when we get back to Mount Justice and I brief the team."

I just sigh a nod, a little disappointed.

* * *

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Thursday, October 7th - 7:30 PM**

 **Mount Justice**

Nightwing stood in the middle of the Titans who were all gathered around Mount Justice's super computer, already geared up and preparing to be briefed on their upcoming mission. Nightwing clicked on the touchpad and picture of a warehouse showed up, along with various names, some looking Russian in origin and others Asian. "Listen up," Nightwing began. "Batman has received information that a huge cocaine shipment is going to be coming into Gotham Harbor tonight, with a suspected fifty man operation consisting of the names you see here on the screen," he motioned. "All of these men are confirmed to be affiliated with the Chinese Triad and the Russian Mafia so expect them to be heavily armed and dangerous."

Troia raised her hand to interject. "Wouldn't this normally be job for the Gotham police department or the FBI?"

"Normally yes, but the isn't a normal situation. Dr. Johnathan Crane, better known as the Scarecrow is reported to be the head of the operation, which means that it's most likely that the cocaine is infused with his fear toxin. For obvious reasons including mass nation wide panic from all users, we don't want that getting out, so tonight our objective is to secure the shipment as well as detain the people involved, especially Crane. A fairly simple mission to say the least, probably something six or so league members would handle, but it's good for training purposes. Any questions?"

Kori, who sat on the couch away from the group, shyly raised her hand. "What am I to do during the mission?"

Nightwing smirked. "What do you mean? You're coming with us."

Kori's eyes widened. "I am?" She didn't know when she became apart of the team, but she guessed if they could stand with her when she needed them, then she would stand with them if they needed her, that was what being a friend was after all... Plus, Nightwing was going to be there so...

"The last time I checked, you fought pretty well beside us, so I suggest you get ready... Starfire."

Starfire? The Earth translation for he real name? She liked it. Starfire it was and she was a Titan.

* * *

 **3rd Person POV'**

 **Thursday, Octobe 7th - 10:00 PM**

 **Gotham Harbor**

Nightwing stood on a nearby rooftop, looking down at the warehouse with his mask's night-vision capabilities, the other memebers of his team standing behind him, waiting for orders to move in on the target. He could easily see 30 or so men walking back and forth from the boat to the warehouse, and he knew more were inside. He couldn't make out any facial features, all of them wearing dark hoods, for whatever reason, but it could have been just in case the police... or worse, the Batman, showed up. This continued for a solid thirty minutes, but eventually the men finally all gathered inside.

Now that all the targets were in a single confined area, Nightwing turned to his team. "Alright, here's the deal. Instead of all of us busting through various windows to make dramatic entrances like Batman likes to do, we're going to straight in through the front door. Bullets are going to fly, but as soon as we're in, Raven, you need to raise your barrier, got it?"

She nodded and he continued. "After that, I'll give all of you instructions from there. Let's move out." Nightwing jumped from the room of the building, coming to a rolling landing, the rest of the team following swiftly behind. They charged the front door, bursting inside and Raven's dark energy barrier raised, but to everyone's surprise, no bullets came flying and their were no drugs to be seen. Instead, standing all along the rafters, were a line of men, shielded by the darkness of the rafters.

"Hello, Robin. Not who I was expecting." One of the men spoke and Nightwing's jaw dropped. He knew that voice. He could recognize it anywhere, the deep smoothness of it being unmistakable. The shadow figure stepped out and now hood free, Nightwing could see him in his black and orangish gold face mask. It was none other than Deathstoke himself. "But then again, you probably weren't expecting us either," he cooed.

"Us?" the Flash questioned gazing at the other dark figures, hidden by the darkness. One after another they began to step out, revealing themselves to the team. Bane, Deadshot, the Reverse Flash, Gorilla Grodd, Black Adam, Sinestro, Two-Face, Black Manta, Scarecrow, Captain Cold, Bizarro, Bronze Tiger, Vandal Savage, Cheetah, Mr, Freeze, Poison Ivy, Black Mask, many other lesser known 'bad guys' and surely the master mind of the whole operation... or whatever this was, Let Luthor is his Kyrptonite armor robotic suit.

And it was at this moment, Nightwing knew two things. One, this was clearly a trap and two, they were in some major trouble. "Well, shit."

* * *

 **Things are about to go down, and probably not for the better. Hopefully next chapter will be out sooner than this one was. Review!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter ten is awesome guys. The story is progressing really well, right now. Keep up the awesome support!**

* * *

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Thursday, October 7th- 10:40 PM**

 **Gotham Warehouse**

"I suppose you are wondering why we are all here, Robin," Deathstoke began, speaking directly to Nightwing, whom he still called Robin even after leaving the mantle behind years ago. "The answer is quite simple actually. You see, all of us here have our own goals and aspirations," he motioned to the group of villains around him. "But each time we try to accomplish anything, something always gets in our way, that something being the Justice League. Now, individually, not a single one of us has the power to take down the league, but luckily we all realized that, so this is our response to remedy the problem. You can call us the Brotherhood." The Brotherhood? Basically their far more sinister version of the Justice League, a team of some of the most powerful villains on the planet.

This was really bad. Nightwing knew they stood about as much of chance against them as an injured doe did against a pack of hungry wolves, which is why the entire time Deathstroke was speaking, he was trying to make emergency contact with the league through his headset, knowing they would need a lot of backup, but the signal was jammed. There would be no help coming.

Deathstroke jumped from the rafters, landing on the first floor of warehouse, the rest of the Brotherhood following behind him. "We were hoping that if the knowledge leaked that a massive amount of narcotics infused with fear toxin was coming into Gotham, it would draw the attention of a few Justice League members and we could eliminate them here, but it looks like they sent children to do their dirty work," he said as he slowly approached the Titans, who were frozen in place. "No matter however. You will do fine in sending our message." With that, Deathstoke drew his sword and began to charge forward, the Botherhood following him.

Nightwing gritted his teeth, knowing they were vastly outmatched in every way possible, but they couldn't retreat. There was no choice, but to fight. "Titans, go!"

Nightwing drew his staff and immediately clashed with Deathstoke's razor sharp blade, the two bouncing off of each other before circling one another, looking for an opening on their opponent to strike. They knew how each other fought, thought, and moved, having fought many times in the past, so both were very careful to not make any mistakes. Nigthwing spun his bow staff around his body before throwing a head shot at Deathstorke who ducked under the strike, causing the masked hero to then swing low in an attempt to take his legs out from under him, but the mercenary jumped backwards, avoiding the attack before bring his sword down in an attempt to remove Nightwing's head from his body.

The hero blocked the blade with his staff before quickly leaping into the air, kicking Deathstroke in the chest and knocking him backward and to the ground. Seeing an opportunity, Nightwing charged forward, but Deathstroke rolled to his feet quickly and the two began to battle it out in close combat. Nightwing would throw a knee, which the mercenary would block before throwing a punch, only to be dodged or tossed aside by the masked hero. It was a beautiful fight, and if the situation wasn't so dire, Nightwing would have probably enjoyed competing against someone who was so evenly matched to him. It was almost like fighting himself really, you know, if he were a sword wielding sociopath and all.

while that fight was taking place in the middle of the room, Superboy went for Bane, easily matching his strength before overpowering him. Bane was probably the strongest human on the planet, but there was a large gap in human strength and kryptonian strength,and that was perfectly demonstrated when Superboy tossed him fifty yards into the far wall of the warehouse, before quickly crashing into him again with extreme force.

Troia, having fought Cheetah many times in her days as Wonder Girl went directly for her. Cheetah attempted to pounce on Troia, but the powerful hero tossed her into the air like a rag doll before going airborne, just to slam her back to the ground.

The Flash and the Reverse Flash zipped around the room in a red and yellow lighting, fighting each other furiously, a dance which had been done countless times. The Reverse Flash was the arch nemesis of the Flash and specifically Barry Allen. In fact, he was the one who killed Barry's mother when he was a young boy. Wally inherited him as an enemy when he took over the role as the Flash. Needless to say, he hated him nearly as much as his Uncle Barry did.

Beast Boy turned into a gorilla and tackled Gorilla Grodd, the two rolling across the floor as they battled for dominance, but Gorilla Grodd eventually got the upper hand, pinning the changeling to the ground before pounding him over and over again. Beast Boy, deciding it wasn't the best idea to fight an actual gorilla as a gorilla, quickly morphed into a Sasquatch or Bigfoot and tossed Gorilla Grodd off of him with his now superior strength before turning into a rhino and charging him, managing to ram him before he could get back to his feet.

Starfire and Sinestro flew through air, in a green and yellow blaze. Sinestro's powers ran off the fear of his opponent, but the only issue was that Starfire wasn't scared of him in the least. Her green energy, eventually overpowered him and knocked him to the ground, but before he could even move an inch, she was on top of him, throwing blow after blow, his powers barely shielding him from her insane, Kryptonian level strength. She eventually lifted him off of the ground before tossing him into the air and attempting to blast him with her eye beams, while he was in flight, but he managed to block it and once again the two clashed in mid air.

Aqualad came face to face with his biological father, Black Manta and the two stared each other down for a long moment before they came to blows, Aqualad's normally calm and collected personality gone. He hated his father and everything he stood for. He abandoned him as a child, and not only that, but he committed treason against the crown and the man he considered his real father, Aquaman. Black Manta was a great fighter, but his son was better having been trained by the king of Atlantis himself. Aqualad used his ability to control the water he always carried on him to slice directly through his father's armor, before delivering a vicious blow to his head, knocking him to the ground. Normally he would have stopped there, but he continued his assault, kicking him directly in the side as hard as he possibly could. This was obviously personal for him.

Robin took on Bronze Tiger with his bow staff, managing to get the upper hand quickly. He was just too fast and technically efficient for Bronze Tiger's uncontrolled swings to land.

Blue Beetle, Static, and Bumble Bee, all teamed together to fight Black Atom, who was extremely powerful, far too strong for any of them to handle alone. They all flew at him with their various attacks, most being blocked, but the few that did get through, brought them one step closer to taking him down. Hopefully anyway. In was almost like fighting an evil, far more serious version of Shazam.

Cyborg was left to handle Bizzarro, which was a tall task to ask of the new hero. Though he wasn't quite as strong as the failed Superman clone, he was a hell of a lot smarter and used that this his advantage. Cyborg fired two of his rockets at Bizarro, who attempted to catch them, and was successful, but once they exploded in his hand, it knocked him backwards just enough to give Cyborg time to fire his massive energy cannon, sending the clone flying forcefully into the far wall.

With all their friends occupied at the moment, Raven and Red Arrow stood in the back, picking off as many of the other foes as they could. Red Arrow managed to take down Captain Cool and Mr. Freeze with his explosive arrows and even took out Two-Face, Scarecrow, and most of the lesser known guys with his insane accuracy. Raven on the other hand, focused on containing Poison Ivy and her living plants, a job much harder than it sounded.

The Titans were actually doing surprisingly well. They weren't exactly winning completely, but they weren't losing either. Lex, who stood in the back, watching the chaos unfold, gritted his teeth. How could they possibly defeat the Justice League if they could barely beat a few kids playing hero? "Stop letting them dictate that fight!" he screamed. "Pick smart match ups!"

They seemed to do as instructed because the battlefield quickly changed, all of the Brotherhood shrugging off whomever they were fighting to go against someone they matched up better against. Black Atom grew bored of playing with Blue Beetle, Bumble Bee, and Static and a scowl took over his face. "I've always hated bugs. Such annoying pests." With that he trusted his arms forward and a massive wave of black lightning sent them all flying across the warehouse and into the stone walls. Each bounced off before falling unconscious, leaving Atom to head straight for Cyborg, frying his systems with a powerful electric blast, without the robotic hero even knowing he was behind him.

As Cyborg fell to the ground, Bizzarro went for Beast Boy, who attempted to turn into a falcon and escape, knowing he couldn't overpower the Kryptonian clone with any animal he could change into, but before he could get anywhere, Bizzarro caught his talon and slung him to the ground with such force that he was knocked out on impact.

Superboy was still on top on Bane, pounding away at the villain, but he was suddenly blasted from behind by Lex's kryptonite energy cannon, causing him to spasm and scream out in horrible pain before passing out, blood dripping from his nose. With Bane now free, he joined Deathstroke in his assault on Nightwing. The hero attempted to fight both of them off, but he stood no chance. Bane eventually caught him in his mighty grasp and held him in a master lock, leaving the hero unable to move.

Starfire looked on as Deathstoke raised his sword, preparing to drive it through Nightwing's chest, so she dove toward them, planning to tackle the mercenary before he could do so, but before she could reach him, Black Atom and Sinestro, simultaneously blasted her out the air, causing her to crash to the ground. As she hit the ground, she watched helplessly as Deathstroke brought his sword down. "No," she uttered. She couldn't lose him. He was her best friend. Before she had the time to witness anything else she fell unconscious.

Raven saw the blade move closer and closer in almost slow motion. She looked around the room. Most of her friends were down,the ones who weren't would soon be. Nightwing was about to die and surely everyone else would follow. She had to to do something and do it now. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and searched inside herself for the power she needed. "Azarath Metrion Zenthos!" Her eyes went white and suddenly darkness flooded the room.

* * *

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Friday, October 8th - 12:05 AM**

 **Mount Justice**

Where was she? She wasn't sure. All that she knew was that her body was aching horribly and that she could hear voices around her. She recognized them, but she couldn't quite make out what they were saying. They all just sounded like mumbles. She tried to think, but it was so hard, her mind was so clouded. What was her last memory? It was of Nightwing, that she was sure of, but did her stomach feel so uneasy? Wait! Nightwing was about to be stabbed! She tried to save him, but she got blasted before she could do so.

Kori shot up with a scream. "Nightwing!" she yelled. It took her a moment of panting and frantically looking around to grasp where she was. She found that she was sitting in the landing bay of Mount Justice, the rest of the team all near her, some conscious, others not so much. Was that all a dream? It felt like one. No, it couldn't have been because, they all had bandaged wounds and some were in casts. The Justice League was even there, talking to various members of the team about what had took place, but she didn't spot Nightwing anywhere. Where could he possibly be? She had to see that he was okay? It was killing her on the inside.

Despite being in pain, she managed to crawl to her feet before limping over to where Troia sat,holding her arm, which looked badly burned. "Donna? What happened?" she asked."Are you okay?"

"Yeah, Kor. I'm fine besides my arm and pride." She looked around the room, seeing the other members of team, most of which were in worse shape than her. "I was one of the lucky ones. Raven pulled us out of there at the last second. If she hadn't, we would have all probably been killed, but it really took a lot out of her." Both the girls looked over at Raven, who laid asleep on the floor, Gar sitting beside her with a bandaged shoulder and leg, running his hand through hair.

"I shall thank her later, but um, where is Nightwing? He is okay?" Kori questioned.

Donna glanced to the open hanger door. "He's outside with Batman. He was pretty upset when I saw him last. He's never been good with dealing with loosing."

Kori nodded. "Perhaps I should go speak with him."

Donna knew that probably wasn't the best idea. She knew Dick quite well and she was positive that he was probably blaming himself for their loss that day, and the fact that the Dark Knight was outside likely lecturing him on all that he did wrong, probably wasn't making him feel any better in the least. Then again, he did seem to have some odd bond with the alien girl that he didn't have with anyone, so maybe she could indeed cheer him up. "Go for it," the amazon girl shrugged.

Kori did as instructed and floated out of the bay to the rocky shore line of Mount Justice, finding Nightwing and Batman standing by the waterfront, talking about something rather serious judging by the looks on their faces. Oh, if only she could only hear them.

Meanwhile, down by the moonlight lit water, the former dynamic duo stood, both stood staring out at the water. "It's all my fault, you know?" Nightwing spoke after a long silence.

"No. I am the one who gave you bad information. I should have looked into it more," Batman retorted.

"They covered it well. The trap was for the league. There's no way you could have sniffed that out without actually being there." The masked hero shook his head. "I should have seen it from a mile away. I shouldn't have rushed in like that. I should have lead them better. If Raven hadn't saved us we'd all be dead because of me."

"There was no chance that the Titans could have won that," Batman eased him. "You did the most you could have with a bad situation. That's all I ever taught you. You went in their with an extremely young team and put up a hell of a fight against some of Earth's worst villains. That something to be proud of, Dick. ...I certainly am proud of you."

Nightwing looked over at Batman, surprised that he would admit such a thing. "You are?"

Batman looked back at him, complete seriousness on his face. "I've always been. I used to fear that once I retired or died, that Gotham would be left to the wolves, but now I know it will always be protected because one day, you're going to dawn this cowl and be a better Batman than I ever could be. That I am sure of."

Nightwing wanted to smile, but he felt that if he did that it would make the conversation less meaningful so he only nodded, a sign of admiration and respect. "What about the Brotherhood? They're going to strike again."

"I fear their numbers will grow and they'll become stronger, but when we see them again, we will be ready. They know we know of them now. I doubt their next move will be an ambush." Batman replied before pausing for a moment. "We will talk later. You have a visitor."

Nightwing raised an eyebrow before turning around to find a hesitant looking Kori standing there, obviously waiting for his and the Dark Knight's conversation to be over. Nightwing was about to turn back to Batman to tell him he would see him later, but he was gone, as if vanishing into thin air like a ghost. Most people would be freaked out, but Nightwing was more than used to it by now.

Shrugging, he turned back to Kori, and motioned her down. She did as instructed and shyly floated her way off the ledge to stand beside him on the rocky shore. "I did not mean to interrupt your conversation with the Batman, but I just wished to make sure you were okay. Are you damaged?" she asked, instinctively touching his armored chest to look for puncture wounds, finding none, which was a huge relief for her.

He offered her a slight smile. "It's fine. He and I'll talk later, and I'm okay I guess. The only thing I can say is hurt is my ego. It looks like everyone came out decent for the most part. A few bumps, burns, scratches, and the occasional fracture. We got lucky. They could have killed us," he said as he took a seat on one of the rocks to stare out at the water.

Kori brushed her hair behind her ear and followed him, sitting only inches away. "I am aware. I was attempting to save you from the man with the sword, when I was blasted out of the air, but I do have a question. Who are 'they?"she questioned. "All of you seemed most worried when you saw them."

"They are some of most powerful criminals and villains the Earth has and the reason the Justice League was formed in the first place, to defend against them," he explained as best he could. "They've never teamed up like this before, so we are kind of in crisis mode right now."

Kori looked at him and gave him a reassuring smile "Well... I just wish you to know, that I shall stand by your side, in whatever conflicts arise in the future because we are friends and friends fight for each other, yes? she reasoned, copying his speech from weeks earlier.

He returned her smile, and somehow they ended up shoulder to shoulder, as if some unseen force in the universe pushed them together. "Yes." They sat their like that for hours, just talking about everything, but in the back of Nightwing's mind, he knew that a storm was brewing. The question was, were they prepared to face it.

* * *

 **So, what characters do you want to see in the story? What parings? The team needs more members. It's up to you guys who joins. Give me a review and tell me what you want to see.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Prepare for fluff! Thank you for all the support by the way. You guys are great!**

* * *

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Sunday, October 11th - 1:00 PM**

 **Mount Justice**

Three days had passed since the battle with the Brotherhood. Nightwing figured he would give his team that time to rest and figuratively lick their wounds... well, literally for Gar, but today, it was time to get back to work, which is why he currently stood in front of the Titans in the training bay, arms crossed over his chest and his normal serious expression plastered on his face. "So, I could debrief all of you on what happened and what went wrong, but I'm not going to do that. You were all there, and you all saw what happened. The only question I have is how can we prevent it from happening like that again?"

The Flash raised his hand. "Avoid all warehouses for the rest of our lives."

Ignoring him, Robin added on. "We need numbers. They overpowered us, out skilled us, and out numbered us. The first two aren't exactly quick fixes."

"So, you're suggesting we recruit new members?" Troia questioned. "It's not like meta humans are easy to find, and it takes an insane amount of training to be effective without powers. We probably don't have that kind of time."

"Not unless we start our own reality television show. 'Who Wants To Be A Superhero?' I can see it now," The Flash exclaims. "It would be awesome! I could be Randy. Troia, you could be Paula, and buddy, you could totally be Simon," he said to Nightwing. "You both literally just frown at everyone. It's perfect."

"How about something more realistic?" Aqualad suggested, finding it impossible to take the speedster seriously even though he knew he probably was.

"Wait," Red Arrow began. "Doesn't Manhunter have a niece here? Megan, I think her name is. What about her? She has to be a powerhouse."

Nightwing shrugged. He had heard of her, but never had officially met her, and all he really knew about her was that she arrived on Earth about six months ago, and that she was apparently super shy. He had always just assumed that Manhunter kept her locked up in his apartment to keep her safe. Earth could be a rough place for anyone whom was deemed different or odd, so it was understandable. "I'll make sure I talk to Manhunter and the rest of the league. I know they had to consider more than just you guys when they decided to move forward with Project Titan, but until then, let's train."

Everyone groaned. Almost got out of it.

* * *

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Sunday, October 11th - 6:45 PM**

 **Mount Justice**

Kori watched him from across the common room. She studied him carefully, his movements, his smile, his voice. Every little thing about him. Why was she so enthralled by him? She didn't know. He was gorgeous, that she was certain of, but what she was feeling was more than physical attraction. He was a great warrior, one of the best she knew, but her feelings were more that admiration. He was nice to her, and treated her well ever since she arrived, but appreciation or comfort still did not seem to describe how she felt, so if it was none of those things, then what was it?

It was the late afternoon. She knew he would be leaving soon, so instead of just continuing to set and stare at him, she decided to float her way over to where he sat at the kitchen table, he and the Flash talking about something, which she could not quite make out. "Greetings," she said, once she came to a landing.

Both of the heroes turned from the conversation. "Oh, hey Kori," the both greeted simultaneously.

She offered the Flash a slight smile before turning to Nightwing. "I have a question."

"What's up?" he questioned.

"I know you are leaving soon, but I was wondering if we may spend time together this afternoon... if you are not busy, I mean?" she asked shyly.

Nightwing looked over at the Flash, who he knew would be giving him one of his goofy looking smiles and eyebrow wiggles before turning back to Kori, trying to ignore his friend. He knew she liked spending time with him outside of Mount Justice. She had made that very clear, and the truth was, he enjoyed spending time with her as well. If you asked him, he truly did consider her a very good friend. "Well, I was just going back to my apartment, but I suppose you can come there if you want. Not much to do, but we could watch a movie or something?" he suggested.

Kori beamed a smile. "That sounds glorious! I shall go change," she declared before zipping out of the room, to find something in her wardrobe more comfortable to wear than her purple combat uniform. It didn't take her long to return in a purple crop top and grey skinny jeans, and it even looked as if she were wearing the slightest bit of makeup and eyeliner, making her green eyes stand out even more.

Dick had to admit, she was beautiful, model like beautiful even. "How do I look?" she asked, twirling around for him one time.

"Beautiful," he answered sincerely, standing to his feet and placing his hand on her upper arm, causing chills to run down her spine. "You ready to go?"

She nodded. "Yes, I do believe I am." Kori didn't get to leave Mount Justice very often, so every opportunity for her to get out excited her greatly, but especially when it involved spending alone time with Dick. Maybe tonight would be the night she finally managed to figure out her feelings for him.

* * *

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Sunday, October 11th - 7:40 PM**

 **Dick's apartment**

"So, this is it," Dick informed as the duo walked through the door of his apartment. "It's not much, but it's home."

Kori looked over every inch of the room. The living room was pretty small, compared to the large common room of Mount Justice. It had a black leather couch in the center of the room, large enough to sit three or four people, not that Dick had much company. Wally, Babs, the occasional random hook up, but that was about it.

A fairly large sized television hung on the wall not far in front of the couch and a small black coffee table sat directly in front of a leather recliner which matched the couch. Off to the left of the living room was a small kitchen, which looked largely unused. It came equipped with a oven, fridge, and dishwasher, all black in color.

On the far side of living room, adjacent from the entrance door, was his bedroom, which was about the size of the living room. Most of its space was taken up by a large king sized bed and work desk, where he usually did his college work or studied for tests. Just to the right of his bedroom, was another door, which was shut, but it was a pretty safe bet to guess it was a bathroom. Other than that, there wasn't much to Dick's apartment, however Kori found it wonderful as she walked through it.

Dick smiled at her curiosity as he took a seat on the couch and turned on the television before looking over at Kori and patting the spot beside him, silently instructing her to come sit. "You're apartment is wonderful," she stated as she floated over and took a seat closer than necessary to him on the couch.

He shrugged. "It's simple. I like it." He then turned his attention to the television. "Any preferences on what to watch?"

"Well, I do like the romance movies. I have found myself fascinated by Earth's romantic customs," she replied.

Dick chuckled a little. Of course she would pick romance movies, by far his least favorite. Just because Dick was an ever so charming ladies man did not mean he cared anything about romance movies. In fact, he blamed them for giving women unrealistic expectations for how men should act, making it harder for every couple on the planet to have a successful relationship. "I'll make you a deal. This time we watch a horror movie and next time I'll watch any romance movie you'd like."

Kori was a little disappointed at first, but then she realized he said next time, meaning he planned on doing this again with her and just like that the disappointment was gone, vanishing quicker than the Batman himself could ever hope to do. "Very well."

Dick smirked before scanning his recordings until came to a movie that even made him feel a little uneasy when he watched it. Insidious. As the movie played, with every scare, Kori would screech and jump, moving closer and closer to him in the process. Eventually she was right next to him, her hand wrapped around his arm and her feet on the couch, so that she could hide her face in between the couch and his shoulder during the scary parts.

Dick had to admit, he liked the feel of her being so close to him, of her hand draped across his arm. It was so warm and inviting. For a brief second he almost fell weak to the comfort of the dark room, the soft couch, and her lips being so close to his own, but he somehow managed to control his inner playboy just long enough for the movie to come to an end and the credits to roll, knowing nothing good would come of him kissing her.

He wasn't positive about how she felt about him. Her wanting to be near him all the time and how shy she acted around him could have been simply the result of her personality, but he couldn't be sure. Even if she did have genuine feelings toward him, he wasn't the relationship type, it just being too much for him to handle at the current stage in his life type. Plus, if they were to get involved and something were to go bad between them, it could affect the dynamic of the team. He didn't want that... which made it suck that she was so beautiful. The only thing he could compare her to would be an exotic forbidden fruit.

Dick turned off the television, before glancing at the clock, seeing it was well past nine. He had a test tomorrow he needed to study for, as well as a patrol that night, which meant he needed to get her home. "That was pretty good, huh?"

Kori stared at him blankly. "...I shall not sleep tonight... or ever again."

He laughed as he stood. "Don't be dramatic. Ready for me to take you home?"

Kori glanced at the door and frowned. She wasn't ready to go at all. For one, she was having a great time with Dick, despite how scary the movie was, and two, she had spent the majority of her time at Mount Justice. She was in no rush to get back. "Um, Dick, do you mind if I fly back? I know the way and I wish to explore the city some. I promise, I shall wear the ring, so no to draw attention to myself," she pleaded.

Dick knew he shouldn't let her. Gotham was dangerous, but then again, the girl was nearly as strong as Superman, so what could it really hurt? He knew she got bored sitting around Mount Justice all the time, and if anyone else wanted to go somewhere no one would tell them couldn't. Maybe it was time she earned that much freedom. "Um, sure," he agreed. "But take this," he said, writing down his personal number on a piece of paper along with Donna's, Wally's Roy's, and Kal's. "If you need help or anything, just call me. If for some reason I don't answer, call Donna. If you have called everyone and no one answers, then you can call Wally, but he is a last resort."

Kori giggled before nodding. "Thank you, Dick." She was turning to leave, but before she made it to the door, she turned back to him and smiled. "I had a wonderful time and I hope we may do it again."

Dick couldn't help but to smile back. "Me too."

* * *

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Sunday, October 11th - 10:20 PM**

 **Gotham City**

Kori walked down the somewhat busy streets of Gotham, stopping at nearly every store she came to, just to look inside to see what items it held. She hadn't been to this part of the city yet, but it was amazing, far different than anything she had seen before. The buildings were tall, the lights were bright, and the noises were loud.

As she walked and explored all the stores, she specifically paid close attention to all the couples. How they held each others hands as they walked. How they smiled at each other and shared loving looks. How they bundled together in the frigid night air. It was so beautiful. Her stomach warmed just at the sight of them, and that's when something occurred to her. The answer she had been searching for was now clear. She wanted what they had. She wanted someone to hold her hand. Someone look at her the way they looked at each other. Someone to go through the good and bad times with, and more importantly, she realized with absolutely no doubt that she wanted that with Dick, which was a little horrifying. For one, she still didn't know if he had any feelings for her and secondly, Tameranians loved differently than humans. If she fell for him it would be really bad for her, considering she would always love him, regardless of how he felt toward her.

As she stood frozen in the middle of the street, still dealing with the realization, she became aware of a group of males, probably a little older than Dick, gathered around a bench just ahead of her. She cocked her eyebrows as she observed them. They would all look in her direction for a moment, then turn back to their friends and say something before they would all grin or laugh. She knew she had done nothing funny and made sure she didn't stand out in anyway, even wearing a jacket, so why could they possibly be looking at her so strangely?

When the apparent leader of the group, a pale, white twenty something year old in a backwards red flat bill hat and a number twenty-three Jordan hoodie, noticed her looking over at them, she heard him tell his friends to "watch this," before walking over to her with a strut, which he probably thought made him look cool, but in actuality he just looked like he was limping. "Hey, girl. My name is DJ. How you doing?" he asked in a typical Gotham accent.

Kori stared at him for a moment, specifically at a gold chain around his neck that looked quite heavy for human. His neck must have been very tired, especially considering he did not seem very physically gifted, appearing very scrawny and lengthy. "I am well. And you?" she returned politely.

"Good. Good. You know, me and my boys were watching you come this way, and I was just wondering if you were free tonight?" he questioned, placing his hand on her arm, to which she just stepped back from, not feeling comfortable with the contact.

"Free to do what?" she asked.

"Well, I figured we could, you know, go back to my crib, smoke a little herb, relax for a bit, and whatever happens happens, you know what I'm saying?" he suggested.

"Herb?" Kori repeated, not having the slightest idea what the guy was talking about.

"Yeah, you know, loud, weed, pot. Whatever you want to call it," he clarified.

Kori's eyes widened in realization. She had seen a documentary about 'weed' on television. She didn't know too much about it, only that their was a debate on rather it should be legalized and that humans used the plant to reach a euphoric state. She didn't see anything wrong with the concept of it, but she wasn't feeling the guy at all, and she was fairly certain he was hitting on her. She definitely had no interest in him, all of her romantic attention being focused on Dick. "I am sorry, but I do not wish to go with you," she answered matter-of-factly.

"OOOOH!" came the sound of his friends, making fun of the fact that he got turned down by her. Apparently that didn't happen often.

He turned back to them and scowled before looking back to Kori with the same look on his face. "Whatever, bitch. Ain't nobody want your ugly, tall ass anyway. You look like some kind of over tanned freak anyway, so I ain't even stressing it." With that, he walked back over to his friends, who were still laughing at him hysterically, leaving her to stand there stunned. Were all those things he said true? Was she ugly? Did she look like an over tanned freak? If those things were the case, someone like Dick would never even consider her, especially considering she probably looked a thousand times worse without the ring hiding her appearance.

As the guys walked off, tears began to feel her eyes, and with slumped shoulders, she turned around and began to walk back in the direction she came, utterly heartbroken by what he had said to her.

* * *

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Sunday, October 11th - 11:20 PM**

 **Dick's apartment**

Dick sat at the desk in his room, going over the notes he had taken in class again and again, just as any perfectionist would. He was on his seventh time reading over them when he heard a knock at his door. He was absolutely sure he had made no plans with anyone that night, so he found it odd that anyone would be there that late, but he stood and headed to the door anyway.

When he opened it, he was surprised to find Kori standing there, tears dripping down her cheeks and looking absolutely pitiful. He wasn't sure what to say at first, so he just stared before he could finally get a question out. "Kori? What's wrong? Why are you crying?"

She looked at the floor, tears falling from her cheeks as she did. "I was walking down the street and this boy came up to me and asked me if I wold like to go back to his... crib and smoke weed with him. I declined, but when I did, he told me I was ugly and a over tanned freak. If these things are true when I have the ring on, what do I look like without it? I must be some monster."

Dick stared at her, mouth slightly agape. He knew guys could be assholes, but whoever had said that to her deserved to have his ass kicked. In fact, if he knew exactly who he was, Nightwing would pay him a little visit. Dick wasn't good as showing emotions, especially sympathy, but seeing her cry was just too much for him to handle. He had to say something to make her feel better. "Kor," he began, "grabbing her arm and pulling her inside, shutting the door behind her. "You are not ugly, with or without your ring. He just said those things because you turned him down and he didn't want to look bad. Some guys do that. It's very unfortunate and immature, but it happens."

"So... you do not think I am ugly or a freak?" she questioned hopefully.

He flashed her a dazzling smile and chuckled. "Are you kidding me? You are like a model. That's why he hit on you in the first place. He was just mad because you are way out of his league."

Kori's entire face turned bright red and she looked down once more, but for a completely different reason this time. "Thank you, Dick. I value your opinion far more than his."

"Good. You should," he said half jokingly before glancing at the television and then back at Kori. "You know, I'm done studying for the night. We could watch that romance movie now if you want?"

Kori's eyes beamed with happiness. "Truly?"

He stepped aside and motioned toward the couch. "After you, Princess Koriand'r."

She giggled and did as instructed, walking over and taking a seat, him sitting directly next to her, which she enjoyed immensely. It was absolutely amazing to her how quickly he could make her feel better, and it just further proved to her that these dangerous, addictive feelings she were having for him were indeed very real and were going nowhere anytime soon. Only time would tell if that were a good thing or not.

The duo didn't make it through half of the movie before they fell asleep on the couch, her head somehow ending up laying on his stomach. Guess that patrol would just have to wait till the next night.

* * *

 **Told there would be fluff. Next chapter, the team gains two new members and relationships will explored, but something dark is brewing. Keep up all the awesome review guys. It's do amazing so far.**


	12. Chapter 12

**I was asked what is Dick's relationship status with Babs and when will he and Kori get together. Dick and Babs are just friends with benefits currently, and obviously I can't tell you when or if Dick and Kori are going to get together, but it's going to be one hell of ride. That I promise.**

* * *

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Wednesday, October 14th - 2:00 AM**

 **Mount Justice**

Nightwing dodged each powerful blow Superboy through at him, smiling the entire time, which only served to irritate the young Kryptonian more and more with each failed strike. It was so frustrating to fight the masked hero because it was nearly impossible for anyone to touch him. The closest thing he could equate it to was fighting a ghost, something you see, but can never lay your hands on.

"Come on, you're going to have to be faster than that," Nightwing smirked as he back-flipped away from Superboy's hammer fist, taunting him purposely to mess with his emotions. "I don't even have Kryptonite on me and you're still too slow. Do you think this is good enough to beat the Brotherhood?" Nightwing knew that Superboy had the potential to be a serious threat to the Brotherhood and that one day, when the world needed more than a hero, when it needed a God among men, it would look to him. He had to be ready on that day.

Superboy yelled out in rage, before charging forward, only to have Nightwing flip over his head, kicking him in the back as he did, before coming to a flawless landing on the ground behind him. A serious look took over his face. "Stop thinking about simply overpowering me. That's not going to work. Think about strategy. How else can you beat besides your strength advantage?"

Superboy, breathing heavily, tired from all the combat, looked around. How could he beat someone he couldn't even touch? He had to slow him down. Get him to the ground somehow, but how? He thought for a moment and that was when the idea hit him. Using all his force he dropped down, punching the ground with everything he had, causing a mini sized Earthquake and knocking everyone off their feet, including Nightwing. The hero tried to roll to a fighting stance, but before he could Superboy was there, picking him and flying him into the far wall, pinning him their by his chest, his eyes glowing red, simulating blasting him with his heat vision.

Nightwing smirked at the younger hero. "Not bad, Conner."

Superboy smiled, his eyes turning to normal as he lowered him to the ground. "Thanks. I've really been working on controlling my temper. I can't believe I finally beat you."

Nightwing dusted off his shoulder aloofly. "Yeah, well, I kind of let you win, but sure. Whatever."

"You did not," Superboy defended.

Nightwing just smirked, tapping him on the shoulder as he past him. "Check your back."

The Kryptonian raised an eyebrow before doing as instructed, finding three electric pulsing discs attached to him, that had yet to be set off. It was more than enough to even stun a Kryptonian. "How... I... that son of a..." he trailed off following behind him over to the rest of the group. One day he would get him. One day.

Nightwing was about to go into a speech about why is was important to fight like you were playing chess, but before he could, the doors to the bay opened and in walked Green Arrow, along with someone none of them recognized.

It was a girl with long blonde hair, wrapped in a pony tail, tanned skin, a green uniform and mask, and most importantly, a green bow and and quiver full of razor sharp arrows, very similar to the one Green Arrow wore himself. The girl was clearly in great shape, her abs visible on her stomach and her long, slim arms toned. She rolled a large black suitcase behind her, which was clearly packed to the edge of it's capacity, signaling that she planned on staying somewhere for a prolonged period of time.

Red Arrow was especially confused at her presence. He and his mentor were still pretty close, talking everyday for at least a few minutes, and he didn't even have the slightest idea who this girl was or how he knew her. She couldn't have been more than twenty, so surely she wasn't the thirty-four year old Green Arrow's girlfriend... at least he hoped not.

"Afternoon Titans," the Arrow greeted with a friendly smile. "Sorry to interrupt your training, but a certain little bat told me that you were looking for new members, so..." he trailed off, motioning to the girl, whom seemed extremely serious. "I thought I'd help you out. You're welcome. Not thanks needed."

"Um, who is she?" Red Arrow questioned.

Green Arrow was about to introduce her, but the girl decided to handle herself. "My name is Artemis."

Artemis? Red Arrow didn't know any Archer by that name. Seriously, who was this girl? He looked at his mentor and even though they couldn't see each other's eyes due to their masks, he knew the message had been understood. They needed to talk because something wasn't quite right with this girl.

Nightwing took charge, stepping forward. "Okay, so what makes you special? They're a lot of really good archers in the world, but that doesn't make them heroes. What's the difference between you and them?"

The girl smirked and then, with lighting speed , fired off two arrows one after another directly at Nightwing, who managed to catch both easily, but he did notice something. Both would have been kill shots if he hadn't. One would have actually been directly on the jugular vein, and once that was ruptured nothing could be done to stop the bleeding. So, the girl had knowledge of the human body? Interesting. "Okay, you're accurate and know human biology, but that still doesn't make you a hero."

Troia stepped up beside her friend. "What he is asking you, is why do you want to be a Titan? This job isn't easy. Long hours, hard training, barely anytime for a personal life. If you don't want it more than anything, you won't make it."

She paused looking down at the ground. "I really can't tell you why I want this, but trust me, I do." She looked back up at Nightwing. "If you give me this opportunity, I won't let you down. I promise that. I'm a hard worker and I know how to work as a member of a unit."

The Flash leaned up to where he was directly behind his best friend and whispered in his ear. "Dude, we are kind of short on girls around here. I don't think it could hurt to give her a shot. ...You know, for diversity reasons."

Nightwing just rolled his eyes under his mask, knowing Wally didn't actually care about the diversity issue. Artemis just so happened to be attractive, and that's what he was really interested in. With the Flash's vote being in, he turned to Troia, Aqualad, and Red Arrow, awaiting their answers. Troia and Aqualad nodded, but Red Arrow seemed hesitant and just stared at her with a glare for a long moment.

"Whatever," he said with a shrug after a long moment. He still was no where even close to sure about the girl, but he'd wait and see how this went.

Nightwing turned to the girl and offered a slight smile. "Alright, Artemis, it looks like you're going to get a shot. My name is Nightwing. I am the team leader. If you have any problems you can come to me, and I'll help you anyway I can." He looked over at his friends. "This is Troia, Aqualad, the Flash, and Red Arrow. They're the rest of the leadership. If they give you instructions, you follow, just as you would if I said it." He then turned back to the group behind him. "And this is the rest of the team. Cyborg, Beast Boy, Raven, Bumble Bee, Blue Beetle, Static, Robin, Supeboy, and Starfire. If you want to exchange real names later, fill free to do so."

"Starfire," Nightwing called, motioning her over to him.

"Yes?" she questioned, floating up next to the person she considered her best friend and secret crush.

He placed a hand on her lower back and smiled, an action which no one missed, especially Trioa who smiled widely at Kori. "Can you take Artemis to her room and help her get settled in please?"

For whatever reason, the fact that he picked her to do such a simple task pleased her greatly. "Yes, I shall." The alien girl turned to Artemis and offered a smile. She knew how it felt to be around a bunch of strangers in an odd environment, so she was trying to be as friendly as possible in order to make her feel more comfortable. "If you shall follow me, I would be glad to show to your room. They are really quite nice."

The girl nodded before following Starfire out of the room, leaving Nightwing to turn to the rest of the team. "Alright Titans, practice is dismissed for the day. Head to the common room, while myself and the rest of the instructors talk with Green Arrow for a moment." As the team left for the common room, Nightwing, Red Arrow, The Flash, Troia, and Aqualad all gathered around the Arrow.

"So, who is she really?" Red Arrow asked, crossing his arms over his chest. "I don't know any archer by that name, so what's up? I know there is something wrong with this situation. Those shots she fired were pin point accurate. She has had a lot of training."

Green Arrow sighed. "Look Roy, the girl came to me, asking for help. She is from a really bad situation an has done some pretty bad things, but she is talented and really wants to better herself and do something good. I think this is the best place for her to do that."

"Wait," Nightwing interjected. "What do you mean by "bad situation" and bad things?"

"She asked me not to tell you," Green Arrow insisted.

"We're not going to be able to fully trust her unless we get some kind of background on her," Nightwing explained. "We don't need her life story, but you got to give us something.

Green Arrow paused for a long moment, clearly contemplating things. "Fine, but this stays here, okay?" They all nodded and he let out a long sigh, knowing the reaction that was about to come. "She may or may not have been in the league of assassins, and her last name could possibly be Nguyen."

"What?" they all exclaimed in unison.

"Nguyen? Like Jade Nguyen?" Red Arrow questioned in disbelief. "She is related to Cheshire?" Cheshire was one of the League of Assassins most dangerous members. She was a master of Guerrilla Warfare and her favorite weapon, besides her deadly blade, was her poison darts. Needless to say her and Roy were well acquainted with each other, but he had no idea she had family in the league as well.

"She might be her her sister," Green Arrow, mumbled, knowing this sounded really bad right now, which was the exact reason he didn't want to tell them any of this.

"Wait, wait, wait," The Flash began waving his hands frantically. "So, we get attacked by a group of super villains and you decide it's a good idea to bring us a member of the league of assassins? How is that okay? What if she is a spy or something? For all we know she could be waiting to put an Arrow in our asses right now!"

"Despite Wally's colorful language, he is not wrong," Aqualad added. "How can she be trusted with this type of past?"

"Yeah, Cheshire is killer and I imagine she has done plenty of that herself. How could you bring her here?" Red Arrow spoke out.

Green Arrow raised his hands to silence the group. "Calm down. She has been screened by Manhunter, and we all know you can't hide anything from him. She just wants to get away from that life and do something good. She doesn't believe in their morals and wants to stand against them. Yes, she has been on the wrong side, but everyone deserves a second chance. It's your team and your decision, but isn't that what this team was built for? To help the outsiders like her find a place to do something productive and find somewhere they belong?"

Everyone was silent for a long moment, just exchanging looks as if communicating without words. They had gotten pretty good at that over the years. Eventually Nightwing spoke up. "You're right. We will give her a chance." He turned to his friends. "This stays between us. I want her to have a fair shot, and that won't happen if everyone is always looking over their shoulder to see if she is going to put an arrow through them, okay?"

They all nodded, even the skeptical Red Arrow.

"Good," Green Arrow clapped. "I really think this could be mutually beneficial for all of you. The Titans get another long range specialist and she gets a home. Roy, we'll talk later," he said to his former side kick, who just nodded. He was about to turn to leave when he paused, turning back to the team. "Oh, Dick, Manhunter wants to see you later at his apartment. Bruce mentioned that you had interest in recruiting his niece and he would like to speak with you about that if you have time."

"Tell him I'll drop by tonight," Nightwing replied.

Green Arrow gave a thumbs up before heading toward the door, leaving Nightwing to turn to his team. "So... we're definitely going to be keeping an eye on her."

"Yep," they all responded.

* * *

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Wednesday, October 14th - 6:30 PM**

 **Downtown Gotham**

Dick drove down the late evening streets of Gotham, in his midnight black Lamborghini, Kori in the passenger seat, her ring on her finger to disguise her form. She looked over at him for a long moment before finally speaking. "So... where are we going again?"

"To visit J'onn and talk about the possibility of his niece joining our team," he replied simply, leaning back in his seat as he cruised through the traffic.

She blinked twice and continued. "Yes... Not that I am complaining about going with you, because I assure you, I am not in the least, but I am curious why you decided to bring me on this."

"Well, you both have some things in common. You are from foreign planets and are fairly new here. I figured you would be the best to talk with her about how things are going with the Titans. She can probably relate to you better than she could with me," he explained. That was true. That was the reason he brought her, at least that was the practical one. He also just enjoyed spending time with her, which they had been more and more lately, a fact which both were happy about.

"Oh, I see." She brushed her hair behind her ear and looked down, a little disappointed with his response. She wished he'd just say that he liked having her around or something along those lines, but she perked up greatly when she felt his non driving hand casually rest beside hers near the gear shift. It wasn't holding hands, but it was a step. They were skin to skin and even such a small action was enough to make her melt on the inside. She looked out the window, pretending to not notice the rest of the fifteen minute ride, but in truth, she was hyper aware of his every movement.

The car eventually came to a stop outside some rather nice apartment buildings and they both exited the vehicle, her following Dick inside the building and up to the fourth floor, them coming to a stop in front of a large wooden door that had a fresh coat of white paint on it.

 _Ding!_ He rung the doorbell and they could hear footsteps from inside, them growing louder and louder as they approached. Kori was surprised when a human looking man answered the door, but she knew it was the Manhunter when he spoke in his deep, smooth voice that could only belong to him. She guessed that the Martian race had the ability the change their form because he wore no ring on his finger like she did. "Ah, Dick, Koriand'r. Good to see both of you. Please, come in," he instructed, moving out of the door frame to allow them inside.

They both smiled and nodded as they passed through the threshold of the apartment and headed over to the brown couch in the middle of the room, taking a seat. J'onn joined them shortly afterward, sitting in the matching recliner just to the side of the couch. "I am happy to see that you have accepted my invitation."

"Thank you for inviting me," Dick replied. "I hope it's no issue, but I brought Kori as you can see. I think she could relate to your niece much better than I could, due to similarities in their situations."

"It's no issue at all." J'onn assured with a smile. "How have you been, Koriand'r? It seems you have adapted well here."

Kori beamed on of her best smiles. "Oh, yes. Things have been wonderful as of late. I am getting along quite well with everyone. It is nice to have friends. This is a new thing for me."

J'onn chuckled slightly at the Tameranian's exuberant personality. It was far different from when he saw her last. He guessed she really did find her place. "Good. Very good." He then glanced at a closed door to his left with a far more serious face before refocusing on the teens. "I understand you are here to speak with my niece, M'gann, but I wish to inform you of some things beforehand. I have told her that you would be coming to talk with her, so not to take her by surprise, but she is very nervous to meet you. She has not done well with people in the past, and fears being judged. I am not certain if she will agree to accompany you for that very reason."

"Well, we would like to give it a shot. The worst thing she can say is no," Dick replied.

J'onn nodded before standing and heading over to the door that he had glanced at moments earlier. "M'gann, you have visitors," he said and not long after the girl emerged from the room, both Dick and Kori turning to see her. She had shoulder length brown hair, fair white skin, causing the light brown freckles on her cheeks to stand out slightly. She wore a pick top with a mid thigh length white skirt and she appeared to be very shy. She slowly walked over behind her uncle, taking a seat in the chair that he previously sat in, while he sat down next to Kori. "Hi," she greeted, not making any type of eye contact.

"Greetings M'gann! I am Kori and this is my friend Dick," the Tameranian returned smiling as big as she could to appear friendly, but it was actually a little creepy, which almost made Dick burst into laughter, but he managed to catch himself. Kori's social skills were still a work in progress obviously.

"We're representatives of the Titans, which you probably already know," Dick began.

The Martian girl nodded. "My uncle told me you would be coming to talk to me about joining your team. I... I'm just not sure. When I first got here I tried really hard to make friends and it just didn't workout. I was too weird, I guess," she shrugged sadly.

Dick nudged Kori with his elbow. It was her time. "I too am like you. I am not from here either and when I first arrived I certainly did not fit in. I still struggle with proper customs and behaviors, but I have a home and friends with the Titans."

"You're not from here?" M'gann questioned, looking Kori over. She looked human to her, but then again so did Superman, so what did she know.

Kori shook her head, removing her ring and just like that, the hologram disappeared, revealing her much greener eyes and her more golden orange skin tone. "I am from the planet Tameran, far away from here. I consider myself lucky to have ended up on Earth however, because, though I am the only one of my kind here, I have never felt closer to a group of people. That is what the Titans are for. To give extraordinary people a home and friends they can call their own. I believe, if you come with us and give us a chance, that you truly will find happiness there."

M'gann was silent for a long moment, contemplating everything the Tameranian girl said. She was so nervous, but she was also tired of being an outcast. She wanted friends and to feel like she belonged somewhere more than anything. "...Okay. I want to try."

"Glorious," Kori clapped with excitement.

"I think you have made a good decision," J'onn spoke up. "I am sure they will take care of you, and of course, I shall be by every day to check on you."

Dick stood, pulling Kori up by her hand with him. "I hate to leave so soon, but we need to go prepare for her arrival ourselves," he said to J'onn before turning to the Martian girl. We'll give you till tomorrow to gather everything you want to take with and will pick you up then. It's nice to have you on board, M'gann."

A genuine smile crossed the girls face. "Thank you." Maybe this would be good for her. Maybe this was really what she needed all along.

With a nod and a wave, Dick pulled Kori out the door, still not having let go of her hand, which caused her to be extremely flustered. It wasn't until they were in the hall that he finally released his grip. "You were great in there, Kori," Dick exclaimed with a genuine smile.

"I was?" she blushed.

He nodded. "Absolutely. She's a solid recruit. I don't think anyone else besides you could have convinced her to join." He looked away for a moment as if deciding something before glancing down at the gold watch on his wrist. "You know, it's pretty early, and I know a place close by. Would you let me take you to dinner?"

Kori's heart began to pulse a million pounds a second in her chest, threatening to erupt if she didn't get control of herself. Was he asking her on a date? Because in every romance movie she had ever seen it sounded a lot like that when a girl was being asked on a date. She wanted to clarify, but she was so scared of being wrong that she didn't. Regardless, the question was still on the table. "Yes... Yes, I would like that very much."

He smiled ever so charmingly and began to lead her down the hallway to the elevator. Was it date? She couldn't possibly know, but the scary thing was neither did he. All he really knew at the moment was that he was feeling some very dangerous emotions and he didn't know how much longer he could bury them within him.

* * *

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Wednesday, October 14th - 11:PM**

 **Secret Location**

One mile below ground level, directly underneath Lexcorp's Metropolis location, was a large room, nearly the size of a football field. It was nearly bare besides a vault loaded with Kryptonite, Lex's robotic suit, and a few other gadgets. The last few months this very room had served has the headquarters of the Brotherhood, giving them a place to plot for the demise of the league, and this night was no different. Inside the room, Lex stood in front of the entire Brotherhood, a smirk on his face as he walked past each of them. "I've called you all here today for a very specific reason. The time is close. Soon, we will bury the Justice League in their own personal hell and laugh as they burn."

"How do you expect us to beat the Justice League, when a group of kids running around in Superhero costumes gave us a run for our money," Deadshot spoke out.

"We vastly underestimated those "kids," Lex retorted. "Besides, what if I told you I have acquired something that even Superman can't stand against, a monster so powerful, that no other being in the galaxy match its might, and what if I told you that I'm currently close to developing a technology to allow me to control the said monster?"

This peaked their interest. "Where is this "monster" you speak of?" Bane questioned, crossing his arms over his chest.

Lex only smirked in response, before pressing a button on a controller he held in his hand. The wall behind him began to part revealing a giant, horrible creature, held in a glass tank full a numbing liquid to keep it asleep until it was ready to be used. Everyone in the room looked on with wide eyes. It was Doomsday.

* * *

 **Looks like the Earth could be in for one hell of a battle. Next chapter, the team gets comfortable with the new members, but will there be a little drama? And Dick may or may not be having feelings for a certain Tameranian. How will he deal with them? Not well I am assuming. Keep up the awesome reviews guys!**


	13. Chapter 13

**This is the last relatively calm chapter for awhile. Enjoy!**

* * *

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Friday, October 17th - 8:00 PM**

 **Gotham Boardwalk**

Dick and Kori stood on the boardwalk looking out over the wooden rail at the large river that separated Gotham and Metropolis, the moonlight from above reflecting on it making it almost glow. Since going out to dinner a few nights beforehand, they had been out every night since. Last night to the movies, which was Kori's first visit to the theater, and tonight Dick decided to walk her along the Gotham boardwalk, which seemed to go on forever.

"So" Dick began, looking over at her beautiful form with his icy blue eyes. "You have been here awhile now. Have you decided what you want yet?"

"What I want?" she repeated, unsure of what he meant.

"Yeah, like what are your goals, your dreams, your desires?" he clarified.

Kori brushed her hair behind her ear, giving the question serious thought. She had grown much more comfortable around him as of late, so she felt that she could answer him truthfully. "I... I know I wish to stay here one Earth. It is the first place I have ever truly felt at home. Other than that, I am not sure. To be honest, I am scared to want because I do not know what I can have."

Dick looked over at her, a serious expression on his handsome face. "I don't understand."

She turned her green eyed gaze to the water. "I have seen things in movies and personally in my time here that make me wish for certain things. The couples, the way they hold each other, the way they protect each other, and... the way they love each other. I find myself wanting that with someone." She already knew who that someone was in fact, but she couldn't tell him that... or at least, show wouldn't. She feared rejection far too much. "I just do not know if someone will ever see me that way, so I am scared to desire it because I fear I shall be disappointed in the end."

"Kori... You are beautiful, down to Earth, and just amazing," he started.

"And I am also different," she interjected. "Why would someone pick to be with me, when they could have normal girl? One who understood Earth ways and had normal skin and eyes and who cannot fly or do the things I can do?"

"Look at me," Dick demanded and she did with her sad eyes. "I'd pick you." In that moment she could feel the nearly constant butterflies in her stomach transform into dragons, beating their mighty wings.

"You would?" was the only thing she could muster.

He nodded. "I've met a lot of girls here, but you are probably the most incredible one yet. There's nothing wrong with being different, Kor. The way you look at things with such excitement and awe is amazing, as apposed to these girls who spend ninety percent of their day with their faces buried in their phones or gossiping about other girls with each other as if their opinions actually matter to anyone besides themselves. You're kindhearted and genuinely nice to everyone. I can't see a single reason anyone wouldn't want to be with you."

She wanted say something a long the lines of 'even you?' or 'then, why are you not?,' but she could only stare at him, her breath taken away by his words. At this point their bodies had turned away from the water and they were now facing each other. Dick, truly meaning every word he said about her, was realizing some of those things to be true just as he was saying them. Kori was better than any girl he'd ever met. He loved the fact that she did things that appeared weird to others, but made him laugh. He thought her mustard addiction was cute. He thought the way she twiddled her fingers ever time she was nervous was adorable. In fact, there probably wasn't a single thing about her that he didn't like.

He was beginning to feel things he'd never felt before and it was scaring the hell out of him. He didn't know what to do or what to say, all he knew was that his body was drifting closer and closer to hers and she in fact, was mirroring thee action, moving into him as well. Their faces drifted closer and closer together, heads leaning to the side, eyes drifting shut, fingers barely touching each other's wastes. This was it. This was their moment. The moment time slowed down and nothing else around them mattered. They were going to kiss, and nothing in the universe could stop it. Well, nothing except Dick's phone ringing.

Just when their lips were less than a fraction of an inch apart, them even being able to fill the hot breath of each other, Dick's phone went off, with his emergency ring tone, causing both of them to step back quickly, faces red and breathing heavy. "Um, I... I should get that."

"Yes, go ahead," Kori waved him off, but on the inside she was screaming, her emotions on overdrive. She didn't know rather to be ecstatic that he had feelings for her, which was just confirmed, or irritated that he almost kissed her, but his phone interrupted the moment, a moment which could have been pivotal in her future at that.

Dick, who was feeling nearly as frustrated as Kori at the moment, reached into his pocket, pulling out his cell phone, finding Donna's name and picture on his screen. "Hello?" he answered.

"You need to get here now," she exclaimed.

"Why? What's the mission?" he asked. Judging by her tone it sounded like it was something serious.

"There is no mission, but, well, just listen," she instructed. Dick payed closer attention to the background noise coming from the other end of the line and he could hear what sounded like intense arguing.

"What's happening?" he inquired confusedly.

"Long story. Just get here!" she yelled before hanging up.

Kori raised her eyebrow and Dick's bewildered expression. "What is happening?"

"I...I'm not exactly sure, but we have to go."

She sighed. "Very well." His phone was seriously the biggest cock block on the planet, and she wasn't even completely sure of the meaning of that term, but judging by the context she had heard Wally use it in on a number of occasions, it fit this situation perfectly.

* * *

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Friday, October 17th - 9:00 PM**

 **Mount Justice**

Dick and Kori entered through the landing bay and before they could even get out of his jet, they could already hear yelling coming from the common room, alarming both of them. He jogged that way, Kori floating behind him, and once they entered, they found a disaster in front of them to say the every least. Wally and Artemis were arguing, something about her threatening to shoot him and him screaming about how she couldn't be so hostile all of the time. The fire alarm was going off and smoke was coming from the kitchen, where M'gann and Conner were hastefully working to put out an oven fire, and if that wasn't bad enough Vic and Gar were literally wrestling, rolling back in forth across the room and tackling each other when one made it to their feet, Gar being in Gorilla form the entire time.

Dick couldn't believe it. He had been there just hours earlier to pick up Kori and make sure M'gann was settling in well, and everything was fine then. How did it turn so bad so quickly? He glanced over at Donna,Roy and Kal who were watching the chaos take place on the fire side of the room. They shrugged back him, having already tried to break up the madness, it failing each time.

Sighing Dick turned to Kori. "Will you do me a favor?"

She nodded. "Of course. What do you require?"

"Can you please get everyone's attention?" he asked.

"How?"

"Be creative," he shrugged.

She thought for a moment before the idea came to her. Smiling devilishly, she fired one of her eye beams at one of the ceiling's light panels, causing it to explode with a loud boom noise as well as causing part of the room to fall dark. Everyone stopped what they were doing immediately and just stared on, shocked by the sudden explosion as well as the presence of Dick.

He walked to the center of the room, glaring at nearly everyone, even if they weren't involved because they hadn't exactly been doing anything to stop it either. "Now that have all of your attention, does anyone want to explain to me what the hell is going on here?" he seethed.

"This psychopath!" Wally began, pointing at Artemis, "threatened to put an arrow through my eye."

"Do you want to tell him why I threatened you?" she retorted, sending death glares at Wally before turning to Nightwing. "He decided to make a sexual comment about my breasts that I didn't appreciate."

"So, you threaten to murder me? Don't you think there are better ways to go about that? Like, I don't know, just tell me it wasn't okay and that you didn't like it!" Wally shot back.

"Oh please, like that would have worked! I know guys like you and they are so pig headed and self centered that they don't even hear what a girl says the majority of the time! Besides, it's not like I was actually going to do it. Trust me, if I wanted you dead you wouldn't be standing here now." Artemis defended.

Wally was about to go on a rant about he didn't believe anything a member of the League of Assassins said, especially when it came to making jokes about killing people, but he caught himself at the last second, remembering he wasn't supposed to know that, so he just scoffed. "Whatever. The only thing I know is if you want to be here, you better start acting like it, and lose the attitude! We got a good thing going and we don't need you to mess it up!"

Her fists clenched and she gritted her teeth. "I'm sorry I'm such a burden on your team! I'll just go pack and get out of the way if that's the case!" With that she stormed out of the room and into the hallway, a door slamming moments later.

Dick looked at Wally, a frown on his face. "Go talk to her."

"But.. I... She... What?" he exclaimed. "Dude! C'mon, she threatened to kill me? Why should I have to go talk to her?"

"Wally, I think everyone in this room has threatened to kill you at some point. I do it at least once a day, yet still, here you are. It was a joke, nothing more. Go talk to her," he demanded.

Sighing with his shoulders slumped, Wally began to drag himself out of the common room, dreading the impeding conversation that was to come. "Okay."

Dick then turned Gar and Vic, who both knew they were in trouble just by the look on his face. "What about you two?"

"He made a 'your momma' joke!" Vic announced.

"He made one back!" Gar retorted.

"My mom is dead though," Vic glared.

"So is mine!," Gar fired back.

Vic just stared at the changeling for a moment, all his anger dissipating almost instantly. "Oh shit, my bad man, I didn't know." He placed his giant hand on the teen's shoulder. "Really bro, I'm sorry."

Gar sighed, his anger vanishing as well. "It's cool, dude. I shouldn't have made the joke either. It was messed up."

"Pizza?" Vic offered.

"Bro, you read my mind," Gar exclaimed, transforming into a parrot, and settling himself on Vic's shoulder as he headed for the kitchen, which no longer had smoke coming from it.

"Well, that was easy," Dick mumbled, viewing the scene that looked to be straight from a bad sitcom, before looking over at M'gann. "And you?"

"Tried to cook," she answered sheepishly. "Didn't work."

Dick pinched his noise and sighed exasperatedly. He had to come all the way back for this?

Over in front of Artemis's room Wally stood, pacing back and forth as he tried to decide what to say. Guessing it would just come to him in the moment, he finally knocked on the door.

"Go away!" he heard her call back.

"Artemis, it's Wally. Can we talk?" he pleaded.

"I have nothing to say to you. I'll be out of your team's hair by morning, just leave me alone." she spat back, but her voice sounded muffled as if she were laying her head into her pillow.

He could have walked away right there, saying he tired, and she just wouldn't listen to him, and he would have been justified to do so, but something inside him told him to keep going. "Listen I don't want you to leave. None of us do and, I'm sorry for the boob comment. I shouldn't have said it, and you had every right to be upset at me." He paused for a moment, running his hand through his red hair. "I say dumb things sometimes when I find girls attractive."

Things were quiet for a long moment, but surprisingly the door opened, revealing the twenty year old archer, her blonde hair hanging down to her mid back and her eyes slightly puffy. Had she been crying? He didn't know and he certainly wasn't going to question her on it, considering he was already in hot water. Artemis leaned against her door frame and stared at him for what felt like forever before finally speaking. "You don't want me to leave?"

He shook his head. "No. I think you fit in just fine here."

A slight smile began to creep on her face. "Thank you... and if it means anything to you, I'm sorry I called you pig headed and said I was going to put an arrow through your eye, but you know, there are a lot better ways to say you find a girl attractive then making a comment about her breasts."

He smiled sheepishly, a nervous laugh escaping him. "I'll try to remember that.

A smirked crossed her face as she passed. "You know, you don't look to bad yourself by the way," she whispered, heading back to the common room.

Wally just stood motionless for a moment, contemplating if he had heard her right, before turning and smiling at her retreating form. Maybe having her around wasn't going to be so bad after all.

* * *

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Saturday, October 18th - 6:00 AM**

 **Mount Justice**

It was the early morning and the common room was empty, all except Raven, who sat quietly on the couch, watching her television shows before the boys showed up and took it over with their video games. She strongly believed whoever funded Mount Justice should invest in television for each of the rooms to end the daily wars that took place for TV time. After all, they had eleven people living their at this point, plus the other five who were there the majority of the time, so things did get crowded.

Regardless, she leaned back and was enjoying the quiet. She knew that everyone else should be asleep for at least another two hour or so, which is exactly why she was surprised when she heard footsteps coming from behind her. Turning around, she found Gar coming toward her, clothed in only his green boxers. It seemed like the longer they had been here, the more that clothing had became optional. Kori never wore much, but that was culture thing she believed. The boys just simply didn't care anymore.

Gar sat down next to her on the couch, scratching his chest and yawning. "Morning, Raven."

She nodded, sipping on her herbal tea. "Gar. What has you up so early?" It was a fair question, since Gar was usually the last one up.

He shrugged. "Bad dreams. Couldn't sleep anymore."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Want to talk about it?"

Gar looked at her somewhat surprised. The two weren't exactly best friends, but he would say they were decently close. Still though, her didn't picture Raven as the therapist type. Either way, he glanced at the floor before returning his eyes to her. "It was just a flashback sort of."

"To what?" she asked.

"The day my parents died. I get them sometimes. It's been rare since I've grown up, but every now and then, I'll have a night like last night. Tossing and turning, constantly waking up, sweating and panting. It's rough," he admitted, looking sightly sad.

Raven honestly felt bad for him. She liked Gar. She really did. He was nice, free spirited, and probably the sole reason she had come out of her shell as much as she had, so of course him being upset, would upset her as well. "Gar... do you mind... do you mind if I asked you what happened to them? Your parents I mean? If it's too hard too talk about I understand, but..."

"No, it's okay," he interjected. Gar's eyes became reflective as he thought back to that day, it being so clear in his mind that it was like he was actually there. "I was nine, and I was with my parents in Africa. They were there on a jungle expedition to discover new plants to make medicines that could potentially cure diseases. I had just gotten my powers and had no idea how to control them yet. If I did, they would still be here." He paused for a long before continuing. "I remember the river was really strong that day, but they insisted they had to get up stream, and that I should stay behind. They couldn't stop their raft. The current was just too strong. It just kept going backwards. I watched as they went over the edge of the water fall."

Tears began to threaten to fall from his eyes. "They found their bodies down stream two days later. It didn't take long after for me to be shipped off to an adoption home. Didn't stay very long though."

Raven looked on at him, speechless for a long moment. "Gar, I'm so sorry," she said, placing her hand on his bare shoulder.

He wiped his eyes, forcing the tears to disappear, and unbelievably, he smiled. "It's okay because I know they're in a better place, and that they are watching over me. They are the reason I do this. I want to help everyone I can to make up for not being able to help them back then."

Raven smiled lightly at the teenage boy, finally getting clearer view of what made him who he was. "You want to something?" questioned, offering him the remote.

Gar glanced at the documentary playing on the television about the history's greatest writers, artist, and poets. He'd much rather watch an action movie or a soccer game, but instead he declined. "No, I want to watch this with you."

Raven could only smile in return.

* * *

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Saturday, October 18th - 7:00 AM**

 **Dick's Apartment**

Dick rolled over in his bed, his arm resting under his head. He had barely slept at all that night, but it wasn't bad dreams keeping him awake. It was thoughts of Kori. These feelings he was having, they were bothering him, confusing him to his very core. He wanted her. He wanted her badly. He wanted to kiss her, taking her lips in his own. He wanted to run his hands slowly down her toned body before lifting her shirt over her head and pushing her against the nearest walls. He wanted to lift her into the air, carry her to a bed or his table or anything thing really and make her his. But that wasn't the scary part. Those things were normal for him. What bothered him so much was that he found himself wanting more than that. Much more.

He wanted to lay with her after, hold her close, and run his hands through her hair. He wanted to take her on dates, spoil her, buy her clothes and jewelry. Anything she wanted really, but in all truthfulness, she'd probably never ask for a thing, which is one of the very reasons he was enthralled with her. It was hard for him to admit, but he wanted to be with her, and that was the scariest thing because that was a desire he'd never truly had before, not for anyone, not even Babs.

He didn't know what to do. He couldn't be having feelings for her. It was just too complicated. For one, she was a member of his team, and dating her would complicate things greatly. Also, he had no time for a girlfriend. He was not only doing his own thing as a hero, while leading the Titans, but also he was going to college full time. Where did regular time for her come into place, especially with everything going on with the Brotherhood at the moment? Also, if some villain like the Joker were to find out about their relationship, he wouldn't hesitate to take advantage of it.

He couldn't allow himself to feel like this. He wouldn't. He would fight it. He had to. For the sake of his heart and hers.

* * *

 **There you have it. Next chapter is Dick's birthday, but things definitely don't go as planned. Drop a review!**


	14. Chapter 14

**So, I took a break. I needed time to get my thoughts together and decide the direction I want this to go, but in that time, not only have I decided the rest of this story, I also have the concepts for my next two, 'The Story Continued' and 'Every Other Weekended.' You guys want summaries? Tell me in the review. Anyway, enjoy the chapter!**

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Monday, October 21st - 10:00 PM**

 **Donna's apartment**

With the boys, excluding Dick, going to some concert that night for some 'bro time' as Wally put it, Donna decided it would be a good idea for the girls to have a little bonding time of their own, especially with the two new females to join the team, so she decided that they should have a sleep over at her apartment. It would be good for team cohesion and she had never really been to one, having growing up surrounded by amazons and her only close friends being guys, so she really wanted to have the experience, even in her early twenties.

Currently, all six of the girls sat in a circle on her living room floor, bags of chips and candy wrappers surrounding them, and of course a sappy romance movie was playing on the television, though none of them were paying it much attention, but it wouldn't be a sleepover without one. "So," Donna began, crossing her pajama clothed legs, "let's play a little game."

"What sort of game?" Kori questioned, swallowing her third Snickers bar of the night.

"You know, a sleepover game. We ask each other questions and you have to tell the truth," Donna clarified. That sounded like a sleepover game, right?

A mischievous smirk formed on Karen's face. "Okay, I'll start. My question is for all of you though," she said, looking around the room at all the other girls. "Which guy on the team do you think is the cutest?"

They all looked around at each other, seeing who would answer first. "Dick," they responded in unison, causing Karen to frown.

"He doesn't count." Dick could very well be the most attractive male on the planet. It wouldn't be fair to include him. The other males weren't ugly by any means whats so ever, but they certainly weren't Dick either.

Artemis, feeling very confident in her answer and refusing to be shy, was the first to speak up. "I think Wally is pretty cute. I mean, he's goofy and has absolutely no filte, but I kind of like that I guess. Where I come from, everyone is super serious all the time, so it's a nice change. I don't know," she shrugged. "I like how he carries himself.

Wally wasn't a bad choice in any way. He was tall, had a lean muscular build, and a nice smile. His exuberant personality was a little hard to handle sometimes, but other than that he was fine.

M'gann was the next to chime in, even with her flushed cheeks. "Conner is really cute. I like his muscles," she admitted with a light blush. His aggressive personality had improved a lot since he joined the team and no one could deny he wasn't attractive. After all, he was 6'4, had ocean blue eyes, great muscles, and a nearly perfect face.

Raven looked down at the floor and moved the hood over purple hoodie over head to shield her face from the rest of the group. "Gar is... nice."

Everyone looked at her, surprised by the choice. "We have all these six foot plus hunks of man flesh running around, and you pick Gar?" Karen questioned.

"It's not all about looks," Raven retorted, now looking up with a slight glare. "I'm difficult sometimes. I know that, but even when I first got here, and was shutting everyone out, he made an effort to talk to me, even when I was being a bitch to him. He's sweet, funny, and carefree. I like who he is, so the fact that he is green doesn't matter, at least not to me."

"I agree with her," Donna added. "Looks fade, personality doesn't."

"So, then who is your choice?" M'gann asked.

Donna waved her off. "None of the above. I grew up with Dick, Roy, Wally, and Kal. They're like annoying brothers to me, and the rest of the boys are like sixteen and under besides Vic."

"What's wrong with Vic?" Bee Inquired. "I think he is sexy. I mean, girl, have you seen him with that ring on? I would..." She paused, glancing at the fifteen year old Raven. It probably wasn't appropriate to say what she was about to say in front of her. "Never mind."

As the group laughed at Karen, Donna turned to Kori with a smirk. "What about you, Kor?"

She thought for a moment. Who did she find attractive other than Dick? The answer was quite clear to her. "I do not suppose anyone, if we are not counting Dick. He is the only one I have truly looked at like that."

"Damn girl," Karen began. "You got it bad."

Kori raised an eyebrow. "I have what bad?"

"She means you like him a lot," Raven clarified.

"Oh... then, yes," Kori answered. "He is... I am not even sure how to describe him. I just hope he feels the same for me as I do for him."

"Are you kidding?" Donna laughed. "I've known Dick a long time, and I know when he is crushing. I mean, I don't see him taking any of the rest of us out to dinner."

"Yeah," Karen started. "And I mean, he's had to do something to show you he likes you. I know when you look like he does, you're definitely not shy around girls."

Kori began to twiddle her thumbs and look anywhere besides the group. "Well... we almost kissed the other night, but his phone interrupted it."

"What?" they all exclaimed in unison, besides Raven who just raised an eyebrow.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Donna followed up.

Kori shrugged. "I do not know. It did not seem important because we did not actually kiss." She paused, her eyes loosing their normal brightness. "I am worried that I did something wrong. He has not came to Mount Justice in two days and has not contacted me at all since then."

"I'm sure it's nothing, Kori," Donna assured her. "Knowing Dick, he's probably just got caught up in some top secret hero stuff with Batman." Donna didn't know if she was right, but for Kori's sake she sure hoped she was.

Kori sighed and nodded, hoping she'd see him soon and that nothing had changed between them.

* * *

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Tuesday, October 8th - 11:00 AM**

 **Mount Justice**

"Alright, Titans," Donna began, standing in front of the majority of the team. "We have an important mission ahead of us, one that must be completed, not only successfully, but flawlessly. Dick's surprise twentieth birthday party," she continued, the most serious of expressions on her face. "Friday, October 25th the day before Dick's birthday, I'll make an emergency call to him, saying that we have a mission at around eight that night. He will arrive probably thirty minutes later, and we will have all the lights in the common room off. He will be extremely suspicious, so be careful when you jump out at him. Your safety cannot be guaranteed, but other than that it should be a good time."

Kal stepped up. "We have a task list that needs to be accomplished. Roy and myself will get the alcoholic and non alcoholic drinks and food. Vic and Gar will be in charge of cooking, specifically grilling the hot dogs and hamburgers. Karen, Kori, and Raven will obtain party supplies such as balloons, a banner, and paper plates, because none of you seem to like to wash dishes around her," he paused, glancing a the sink full of glasses and plates. "Wally, you will call invite his other close friends."

"And get the strippers!," he announced, earning a frown from Artemis who was standing next to him with her arms now crossed over her chest.

"There will be no strippers, Wally," Donna warned. "We have fifteen year olds here, remember?"

"No, I'm a totally cool with it," Gar interjected

"See," Wally exclaimed, motioning to the changeling.

"No," Donna said with a glare, ending the discussion. Thank God she was there, otherwise she feared that Wally would be able to convince everyone to go along with his antics, making Dick's birthday party look more like an episode of 'Girls Gone Wild.'

He just sighed and waved her off. "Fine. Whatever. Be a party pooper."

Donna flashed him the universal sign of 'I'm watching you', before turning to the rest of the group. "Who ever doesn't have a direct assignment will help set everything up. Got it?"

Everyone nodded. Donna hoped this went off as planned, but something told her it wouldn't.

* * *

 **Kori's POV**

 **Wednesday, October 23rd - 9:00 AM**

 **Mount Justice**

It is Wednesday, two days before Dick's party, and everything has been taken care of for the most part I do believe. I am very excited for it to come, not only because I shall get to experience the human custom of celebrating the day of your birth, something I find very strange, but also because Dick will be here. He has not been around at all since Saturday, the night we nearly kissed and it is bothering me greatly.

I am worried about him, but maybe I should not be. His close friends seem to act as if him being absent the last few days is no big deal, and maybe they are correct, but I still cannot help but to feel that I am the reason he has not been present. It could be that I am just paranoid and overthinking things as I tend to do. I mean, I know he is very busy and has other things to accomplish besides training and leading the Titans, but I just cannot shake this feeling of unease inside of me. After all, he has never missed more than a day at a time since he took over the Titans, so what are the chances that he would miss three consecutive ones?

I wish to call him and talk to him, but I do not even know what to say. When are you coming back? Where have you been? Are you avoiding me? All of that sounds very possessive to me, an d even though I may feel that way toward him, I can't express it. We are not in a relationship, and even I know that would not be appropriate, so I must lay here in my room and wait, hoping that he will come today or tomorrow, and that when he does come, that we are okay.

* * *

 **Dick's POV**

 **Friday, October 25th - 8:00 PM**

 **Gotham City**

One mile. Two. Three. Six. Eight. Ten. I just keep running, passing by the buildings, people, and street lights of downtown Gotham, only vaguely aware they even exist. I'm trying to clear my head. I have been for days, but so far I haven't had much luck. These feelings I'm having for Kori, I thought they would fade, maybe even disappear if I stayed clear of her for a few days, but it hasn't worked in the least. In fact, if anything, they have gotten stronger and stronger every minute that passes. It seems as if, the more I am away from her, the more I think of her, and the more I think of her, the more I miss her, so basically I'm fucked judging by that logic.

Believe me, I've done everything I can think to get her out of my head. Exercising to exhaustion. Going on long patrols, looking for any criminal to take my frustrations out on. Hooking up with random girls with big breasts and and tight asses that I sought out at clubs or on the streets of Gotham, but to this point, all those things have failed because just when I am momentarily distracted from thoughts of her, I'll hear a song or see something in a movie that will shove her right back into my mind.

I'm rounding the corner that leads to the street that my apartment is on, but before I can quite make it there, the emergence alarm on my phone goes off and I quickly reach into the pocket of my gym shorts and pull out my phone, seeing that it's Donna. "Go ahead," I instruct as I answer, my jog, slowing to walk before I come to a complete stop.

"Dick!" Donna screams, causing me to move the phone slightly away from my ear and cringe. "Get here now! No time to explain! Just hurry!" The phone then hangs up, leaving me standing there flabbergasted. I've never heard Donna that panicked before. What could have possibly happened? I guess it's time to suit up and head back to Mount Justice. I just don't know what I'm going to say to Kori when I get there, and that scares me more than whatever has happened.

* * *

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Friday, October 25th - 8:40 PM**

 **Mount Justice**

Nightwing's jet entered the landing bay of Mount Justice, him quickly leaping out of it. He immediately noticed two things. One it was dead silent in the room and all the lights in the entire building were off, making everything around him pitch black. Something wasn't quite right with this situation. The electricity for the entire building came from a powerful generator that sat in the basement deep below the common room. In order for someone to shut that off, they would first have to enter the building and know of it's existence, which the vast majority of people didn't, so how could all the lights in the entire building be out. He guessed the generator could have malfunctioned, but that seemed very unlikely to him, especially with the panicked call from Donna earlier.

Nightwing turned on his night vision and withdrew his bow staff, preparing for something unknown. As he quietly creeped toward the common, he tightened his grip on his weapon, preparing to strike, even though he had no visual on anyone inside. Better to be safe than sorry.

Just as he stepped through the threshold of the room, the lights all of a sudden turned on, catching him by surprise and the entire team, plus Babs, who Wally had invited, jumped out from their hiding spots. "Surprise!" they screamed, causing Dick to reach for his explosive disks in his utility belt, but he managed to stop himself before throwing one, coming to grasp with the situation.

"Happy Birthday!" Donna exclaimed, coming up to him and giving him a hug and a kiss on the cheek, which he returned, still taking in the situation. "Sorry I scared you like that, but it's the only way I could think of getting you here quickly."

Honestly, Dick had completely forgotten that tomorrow was indeed his birthday, so he didn't think twice about the whole thing. If he had, he would have been way more suspicious than he was, but he had to admit that they did pretty well putting this whole thing together without it getting back to him. Wally had a big mouth.

He observed the streamers hanging from the ceiling. The cake with black frosting and a blue Nightwing symbol in the middle of it. There were even a few gifts sitting on the common room table. And then his eyes fell to her. Kori. She was waiting. He knew that. Waiting for him to come talk to her. Waiting for him to explain his recent absence, but what was he supposed to say to her? That he didn't want anything serious because he was scared she would get hurt? The girl could stop an oncoming train with a single finger and had the ability to shoot scorching energy beams from her hands and eyes. Oh, not to mention she could fly much faster than the speed of sound.

He knew that was a bullshit excuse, and he knew she would know that as well. The truth was, he was simply scared of the way he felt. The need he had for her drove him absolutely insane. He didn't want to tell her that. He didn't want to express to her that he very well could be falling for her, so what could he say? That he was running from his feelings? That he was terrified that he would somehow lose her or he would wake up one day and she would be gone? He couldn't do that. Instead he diverted his eyes looking anywhere else.

Once the happy birthday wishes ended, music began to play, courtesy of Donna's phone's playlist, which consisted of mostly pop music, and the ones old enough to drink alcohol, Dick now being in that group... or he would the next day, so close enough, began to fill their cups up, the rest being stuck with soda.

Kori watched him as the odd drink in his cup made him begin to act different. At first he was just more talkative then normal, but slowly his words began to slur slightly and he became more touchy, especially with the girl named Babs, who he apparently was really close with, judging by the fact he seemed so open with her. The fact that he was giving her so much attention made her just as mad as the fact that he seemed to be ignoring her completely, refusing to even look in her general direction.

She was almost seething as she watched him and her sit side by side each other on the couch, both drunkingly laughing as they whispered in each other's ear. Even having to sit through all of that, she didn't lose control of her emotions completely until she saw the one thing that broke her. Dick slowly leaning in and kissing her, gently pushing her back against the couch arm, as he ran his hand down her back. It was exactly what she wanted, and now she watching as he did it with another girl. It was the worst pain she had ever felt, and she knew pain very well.

Kori stood, mouth agape, unable to believe what she was seeing. Tears began to form in her eyes before trickling down her cheeks. How could she have fell for a human? How could she have been so dumb to let this happen? Humans don't love like Tameranians do. They aren't loyal like Tameranians are. She should have controlled her emotions better. She should have guarded her heart more carefully, but now it was too late. Now, in this moment, she knew two things. One she loved him. It was quick and unexpected, but that was how love often happened. Unexpectedly and in the blink of an eye. The second thing she was certain of was that she was heartbroken and in trouble because if she did truly love Dick as she felt she did, she would never love anyone else.

With tears in her eyes, Kori left the building unable to watch this continue any longer. She couldn't be around him anymore. It hurt too much. She didn't know where she was going, but she knew she had to get away.

* * *

 **Where has Kori gone? What will Dick think? What are the consequences going to be? Find out next chapter. Review!**


	15. Chapter 15

**Dick's POV**

 **Saturday, October 26th - 11:00 AM**

 **Mount Justice**

I awake, my head pounding like drums from the very second I gain some sense of consciousness. I immediately realize that I am completely naked in a room I don't quite recognize, but considering I don't remember leaving Mount Justice last night, I'm willing to bet that this is one of the dorm like living facilities of the instillation, but I am in no condition to raise up and confirm that theory... at least I have no desire to.

I glance out of the corner of my eye, trying to locate my uniform, sure that it is somewhere in the room, but that is when I notice that I am not alone in this bed. Laying on her side, facing away from me is the bare form of Babs, her breath falling evenly, signaling that she is still asleep.

I shrug it off, not too surprised by the fact that we slept together as it appears we did, after all, it has happened many times before, but then my eyes widen when I come to sudden realization. Kori more than likely saw at least a portion of whatever happened between Babs and I that lead to the bedroom last night, which can't be good... for her or me.

I'm not naive. I know Kori has feelings for me, and I am fairly certain that she knows that the feelings are mutual. She must be really upset with me this morning, and though I can't allow myself to be with her or fall for her, I don't want to hurt her or her to be mad at me either. I mean, I enjoy hanging out with her, and at the very least I thought that we could be close friends. Maybe if I can go find her, I can talk to her, and we can figure things out. Then again, that's probably what I should have started with all along.

Clenching my throbbing head as I move, I manage to sit up quietly so not to wake up last thing I want is to have to deal with her as well this morning. I then locate my uniform and mask, which lay on the floor beside the bed and put them on before exiting the room, closing the sliding door as quietly as possibly.

Once out, I see that I was in the vacant room at the very end of the hall and begin to drag myself toward the common room like a slug, a horribly hungover slug, the entire walk thinking about two things. One, what I'm going to say to Kori when I talk to her, and two, how I am never going to drink again. Ever.

Inside the common room, I don't see Kori anywhere in sight, but I do find Wally laying on the couch asleep, Artemis almost directly on top of him, snoring on his chest, Roy passed out in the corner with a red baseball cap covering his eyes and a drawn on handle bar mustache just over his upper lip, and the smell of breakfast coming from the kitchen. I am little curious about the whole Artemis and Wally situation, but instead of investigating any further into that right now, I decide to head into the kitchen to see who is awake.

Once in there, I find Donna and M'gann by the stove, in the process of prepping what looks to be eggs, bacon, pancakes, and toast, while Kal, Conner, Tim, Vic, Gar, Raven, Jaime, Virgil, and Karen all sat around the table, waiting for the food to make it to the table. Hmm, Kori isn't here either. I wonder where she could be? There's no way she is still asleep.

I walk up behind Donna, resting my pounding head on her shoulder, and she turns her head to greet me in a way I wasn't quite expecting. "Morning, asshole."

She shrugs my head off and I take a step back, wondering what I did to make her mad. "What did I do to you?"

She turns around to face me and opens her mouth to speak, but before she says anything, she glances at the group sitting at the table and then turns back to me. "Can I talk to you in the training bay for a moment?" She asks, but heads out of the room before I have a chance to answer her.

"Um, okay," I say, regardless of the fact she is gone, before following her out of the door.

Once I reach her in the training bay, I find her standing there with her arms crossed over her chest, and looking very displeased with my existence at the moment. I really wish I could remember last night. I settle a few inches in front of her, eyebrows raised. "You want to tell me what I did to you now?"

She laughs sarcastically. "Me? You didn't do anything to me. It's what you did to Kori that I'm upset with you about. You knew she had feelings for you and I know you have feelings for her, and yet, you made out with Babs on the couch right in front of her. That's fucked up, Dick. I don't understand what the hell was going through your head."

I looked down at the ground, shamed by her words, and though I can't recall making out with Babs on the couch, I'm sure it happened. "Look Donna, I didn't mean to hurt her. I... I just can't... I..." I pause, finally raising my eyes back to her face. "I like her Donna and I don't know what to do. I've never had these feelings and I am scared out of my mind that if I let myself fall for her that everything is going to eventually go wrong. What am I going to do if I wake up one day five years from now and she's gone or she dies or just... something. Then what, Donna? I can't take loosing anyone else close to me."

Her angry expression softens and she walks toward me giving me a hug before pulling away, still keeping her incredibly strong arms on my side to force me to look at her. "Dick, I know after your parents and Jason that your apprehensive to let people close to you, but you can't push everyone away that tries to get past this wall you've put up. Kori could be the one, but you won't ever know if you don't give her a shot. I don't want you looking back on this ten years from now, and wondering what if."

"...Where is she? I want to talk to her."

"That's the issue," Donna began. "She left last night after she saw you kiss Babs, and hasn't came back yet."

"What? Where'd she go?" I ask hurriedly.

"Not sure. I just hope she is okay," she replies, a worried look on her face.

"Me too." Wherever she is, whatever she is doing, I just hope she makes it back soon. We need to talk and I need to explain myself. Whatever comes of that I'm not sure, but I have to try what I should have tried from the beginning. Sitting down and figuring this out. Together.

* * *

 **Kori's POV**

 **Saturday, October 26th - 12:00 PM**

 **Gotham Board Walk**

I sit here on the edge of the pear that Dick brought me to last week, just staring out into the river that is flowing slowly in front of me, occasionally glancing up at the city that sits on the other side. After I left the party last night, I wondered around the streets of Gotham, the only city I really know, for hours, just trying to gather my scattered thoughts and eventually I just ended up here. I do not know why exactly. It just happened.

My heart is hurting and I feel this emptiness inside of me that I cannot even begin to describe. Who was she? The only thing I know of her really is that her name is Babs and that she is the Batgirl. I guess her and Dick have a past. That seems rather obvious at this point.

What is hurting the most I guess, is the fact that I had to stand by and watch Dick give her what I have wanted for what feels like forever now. Am I not good enough for him? Is she just better than I am? More of what he wants? Is it the fact that she is human, normal, and I am not? Dick said I was better than any other girl he knew. Was that a lie just to make me feel better about myself? I suppose that is the case judging by what I saw last night. If what he said was indeed true then he would not have been doing that with her. It would have been me... It should be me... but... I guess he does not see it that way.

I suppose the question is, what am I to do now? I cannot just throw away my feelings like they never existed. I am not like humans, who seem to be able to do that so easily. I stupidly allowed myself to fall for his eyes, his smile, his charm, and now I am stuck, unable to escape. It is like some form of trap. One that does capture your body, but your very soul. I do not blame him though. No, I am fault in this. I felt my feelings growing stronger and stronger for him everyday and foolishly, I made no attempt to stop them.

What did I think would be the outcome of this? I knew it could not end well, but I was so entranced by the Earthly romanticism of it, that I guess I decided to ignore my impeding fate, even though I could have avoided it simply by staying away from him. Why in the name of X'hal would I allow myself to be put in such a situation? Now it is as if I am frozen in time, stuck loving a human who shall never love me back.

There is only one thing to do. I must go retrieve my things from Mount Justice and leave. I do not know where I shall go, but I will not stay here. I will not have my heartbroken every time my eyes lay upon his face and I have to remember the one who turned out to be the love of my life shall never be mine... no matter how badly I desire him.

* * *

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Saturday, October 26th - 1:30 PM**

 **Mount Justice**

The Titans, all now awake all sat around the common room, doing whatever they normally did during the day besides training. The boys playing video games, Raven reading, M'gann working on her cooking skills, and so forth. In the training bay however, Dick and Wally leaned up against the far wall, arms crossed over their chests, as they quietly contemplated things. Dick new both he and Wally had a lot to get off their chests and this was probably the best place to do it, not only because it was quiet, but also because he could see both the entrances to the training and landing bays from here, meaning he would know if Kori decided to return.

"So," Dick began. "You and Artemis, huh?"

He sighed. "Yep."

"Wanna talk about it?" Dick asked.

"I don't know, man. From what I remember from last night... which isn't much... we were talking and I think we may have kissed, but I'm not sure. I thought things were going pretty well. I mean, we been hanging out a lot the last few days, and if you can look past the fact she is an ex killer, she like perfect, but then ever since we woke up this morning, she has been acting all awkward, and I don't really know what to say to her," Wally explained.

Dick smirked slightly. "You speechless? Never thought I'd see the day."

The red haired speedster frowned at his friend. "You aren't helping, you know? Aren't you supposed to be an expert on girls?"

Dick shook his head. "Apparently not with the situation I'm in. I mean, I did apparently make out with Babs right in front of Kori. Probably not the smartest thing I could have done in that situation."

Wally laughed. "Oh yeah, I remember that."

"You saw me and you didn't stop me?" Dick exclaimed, glaring at his friends.

"Hey, I didn't know what was going on with you. I mean, I was pretty sure you were really into Kori, but I just thought you wanted your cake and to eat it too, so to speak. Besides, what was I supposed to say? No, Dick! Don't kiss the hot red head! What about the other hot red head?" he defended, raising his hands into the air.

Before Dick could retort, the alarm began to blare loudly, causing both of the heroes to cringe. The next thing either of them new, Donna came rushing to the threshold of the common room and the training bay. "Dick, Wally, we have a problem."

Glancing briefly at each other, the duo rushed into the common room, Wally obviously winning the race. Once Dick arrived inside he found everyone gathered around the common room computer with startled expressions on their faces and he immediately had a flash back to the Gordanian incident. "What's going on?" he questioned, now in full hero mode.

Looking at the screen, he found an emergency alert coming from the Watch Tower, and it was a code ten, which meant that the Watch Tower was being attacked. Clearly something terrible was happening right in that moment, and he knew they needed to get there as quickly as possible. "Everyone, listen up," he began, speaking calmly as possible. "The Watch Tower is under attack. I can't be sure who the opposition is, but the alarm would not have been activated if they did not need immediate back up, and if the Justice League needs reinforcements, that can only mean one thing. Shit has hit the fan. This is the exact scenario we have trained for, so gear up and let's move out."

With that everyone nodded and quickly ran, off to hero up, preparing to face an unknown enemy, but in the back of their minds all of them were thinking about one thing. The Brotherhood.

* * *

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Saturday, October 26th - 2:30 PM**

 **The Watch Tower**

Nightwing's jet came into view of the orbiting Watch Tower, and instantly could see there was problem, smoke coming from the right side of the structure in large amounts. Speeding up, he swooped inside the landing docs of the building, the other two jets, who followed closely behind, landing at its side.

As the team exited their ships, each individual was on high alert, not knowing what to expect out of the situation. One thing was for sure though. Things were far too quiet right now. This was the central operating station for the entire Justice League, things were always busy around here, so if wasn't clear as glass before that something was horribly wrong, this pretty much confirmed it.

Nightwing waved his hand forward, the sign to move out, and the group did so carefully and quietly, trying to stealthily navigate their way through the halls of the Watch Tower to where they saw the smoke coming from. It took longer than it usually would have for them to get from the landing docs to there, them trying to move slowly and tactically, so not to give away their position, but once they did manage to make their way to the location, what they found was a nightmare.

Not only was there a large hole in the roof of the Watch Tower, which was where the smoke was originating from, but there was a quite of bit of damage to the interior of the room as well. Dents in the steel walls, a sizable crater directly above the hole in the roof as if something rather heavy crashed there, most of the machines in the room completely destroyed, and their metal scattered across the floor, signs of powerful energy filled blasts engraved the walls surrounding them. Clearly a major conflict had occurred here, but the more troubling thing was that no member of the Justice was present. The Watch Tower looked like an old, broken down ghost town at the moment.

Nightwing looked on astonished. Where was the Justice League? What could have possibly happened here? Nightwing glanced at the severely damaged super computer in the room before turning to look at Cyborg. "Can you download the footage off the cameras and pull it up on the hologram projectors? We need to see what happened here."

Cyborg thought for a moment before nodding. "I can give it a shot." The robotic hero then walked over to the the large, busted computer and hooked his wires up to it, attempting to download the data from the hard drive. It took a solid five minutes or so, but eventually he was able to recover the damaged data and pull the recording from the tower's video cameras onto the hologram projector.

"Let's review the last hour and a half of footage," Nightwing instructed. That was thirty minutes before they received the emergency alert at Mount Justice, so he was pretty sure that whatever happened they would see it in that time frame.

For eight minutes, they watched as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and the rest of the Justice League sat around, clearly working on something important, but suddenly a giant Lexcorp ship came crashing through the roof, coming to a landing in the center of the room. Before anyone had time to react, members of the brotherhood began to storm out of the ships hatch and go after the League. Bane went straight for Batman. Black Atom for Shazam. Lex in his Kryptonite armor for for Green Lantern. Deadshot for Green Arrow, and so forth. And if that wasn't bad enough, what happened next was the nail in the coffin. Through the gaping hole in the ceiling, crawled a monster so horribly powerful that it could only be referred to by one name. Doomsday.

The creature leaped from the ceiling and crashed into the floor, shaking the entire room as it landed. Superman attempted to go after it, being the only one who stood a real chance of taking it down, but before he could near it, Deadshot fired a Kryptonite bullet straight into his back from where he stood, knocking the Man of Steel to the ground where he screamed out in pain and began to spasm before his body fell still. With him down, possibly dead, all hope was gone. The Brotherhood quickly overtook the rest of the league, them falling one after another, despite their best efforts to fight back.

Nightwing looked on in horror as Batman crawled to the screen and activated the emergency alert. "Dick, Tim, I love..." before he could say anything else in his weak voice, Bane jumped into the air before smashing down into him and the super computer in the process. As all members of the league lied motionless in the middle of the room, Sinestro used his powers to gather them in a yellow bubble of energy before transporting them onto the ship with an evil smile on his face.

The clip ended at that point, there being nothing else to see. Nightwing looked around the room. Each member of his team had the same expression on their face. Brokenness. They didn't know what to do next, and despite all his training that he'd received over his many years as a hero, the truth was, neither did he. The Justice League was captured. The Brotherhood had beaten them. Superman might be dead, as well as other members of the league. And worst of all, the Brotherhood was somehow controlling Doomsday. Things were going down hill fast and he had no idea how to stop it.

The Flash swallowed hard. "What's our next move?"

Nightwing shook his head, wide eyed. "I don't know."

* * *

Oh, shit! Things are going bad fast! Kori wants to leave, the league has been captured. Lex is controlling Doomsday. What can the Titans do? Still working on the summaries, but I'l get them to you next chapter. Review!


	16. Chapter 16

**So, someone mentioned that Raven should be sixteen by now. I'm not certain of when Raven's birthday is on the comics or the television show, but I already have a plan for her, some of which you will see fairly soon. Other than that, thank you guys for all the support. I really love this chapter and I hope you do too. Summaries are at the bottom but this story still has 20 chapters left.**

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Saturday, October 26th - 4:00 PM**

 **Mount Justice**

Nightwing sat in front of the super computer of Mount Justice, reviewing the footage from the Watch Tower, looking for anything that might help them track down the Brotherhood and therefor the Justice League. He needed something. Anything at all. Batman always taught him that there is always clues to be found at the scene of a crime, and he knew this was no exception. There never was one.

Robin sat at his side as his second set of eyes, trying to catch anything Nightwing might have possibly missed, while everyone else hung in the background all feeling extremely anxious at the moment, knowing things were unraveling rather quickly, and that they were the only ones who could possibly stop them from doing so, regardless of how small their chances actually were at the moment.

About the hundredth time watching the footage, or at least, that's what it felt like it, Nightwing jumped from his seat, seeing something that he missed the previous times he had watched it. "Robin, stop it there and rewind it," the hero instructed. Robin did as told, studying the footage, trying to find what his adoptive older brother saw, and that's when he spotted it. Right as Superman fell to the ground, Batman tossed a Batarang toward Bane, barely missing him, leaving it to stick into the side of the Lexcorp ship.

Now, to the normal eye, this was nothing, but Nightwing and Robin knew one thing for certain. Batman never missed. Ever. He could make that throw blind folded in a hurricane every time. Clearly, he wanted to hit that ship for a reason, and both of them were willing to bet that there was a tracker placed on that Batarang, and if that was the case, finding them... or at least their ship, wouldn't be an issue.

"Wait," the Flash began, walking up behind Nightwing. "What do you guys see?"

Nightwing turned around to his friend and the rest of the team. "I'm pretty sure Batman put a tracker on the ship. I can get into his computer system and from their I could see where the ship is."

"So, let's find out where the ship is and go kick their sorry asses," Bumble Bee exclaimed, smashing her fist down on the palm of her other hand.

Aqualad shook his head. "No. They beat us last time, and that was without Doomsday. None of us here are powerful to fight him one on one, and we don't have the ability to team up against him because we still have the Brotherhood to deal with."

"Also, we aren't going to have the element of surprise," Troia added. "They know we're going to come after them."

Nightwing nodded, clearly thoughtful. "You're both right."

"So, then what do we do?" The Flash asked, talking specifically to Nightwing.

The hero sighed and shrugged. "I don't know. If it was just us in a rematch against the Brotherhood, I'd like are odds a lot more, but with them having Doomsday are chances are about that of a snowball in hell." He shook his head. "We need a plan, but..." He paused, his eyes becoming wide. "I got it!"

"What?" the majority of the group questioned in unison.

"Batman would know exactly what to do in this situation. He would have accounted for every possible scenario and would have a response plan." Nightwing attempted to explain.

The Flash's eyebrow raised at his best friend. "Buddy, that's great and all, but Batman isn't here right now."

Nightwing stood from his seat, shaking his head. "No, you don't understand. On the Bat Computer there is a number of contingency plans for various scenarios. Once Batman found out about the Brotherhood's existence, he would have came up with a plan for every scenario involving them, including one where the Justice League lost." With no further explanation, Nightwing began to quickly make his way toward the landing bay. "I'm headed to the Bat Cave. Troia keep me informed if anything happens. I'll be back as quickly as I can."

And with that he was gone, searching for the answers he didn't have, and for the sake of everyone, he really hoped he would find them.

* * *

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Saturday, October 26th - 5:00 PM**

 **Mount Justice**

Nightwing was only gone about fourty minutes or so, when the group heard approaching footsteps from the landing bay. Knowing that it couldn't possibly be him returning already, Troia peaked around the corner to find a miserable looking Kori approaching. If the situation wasn't what it was at the moment, she would have been ecstatic her Tameranian friend had returned, but there were obviously far bigger problems at the moment.

Once Kori entered the common room, she was surprised to find everyone, minus Nightwing, standing around the room in full gear, anxious or worried expressions on some of their faces. She wasn't naive enough that she couldn't clearly see that something was wrong. "Um, greetings. Is everything okay?"

"That's going to be a big no," The Flash responded as he paced back in forth.

"Is Dick okay?" she asked, her first instinct being to check on him, even though she was far pleased with him.

Troia stepped up. "He's fine Kori, but... Well..."

The Flash quickly cut her off. "The Brotherhood attacked the Watch Tower and captured the Justice League. Plus, they are controlling Doomsday somehow and I know you don't know who that is, but I promise you it's really bad, so Nightwing went to the Bat Cave to see if he could find some kind of contingency plan to stop them because otherwise we're all more fucked than a prostitute in down town Gotham."

It took Kori a moment to comprehend what the speedster had said, him talking so fast, it was hard to understand, but once she did, her eyes grew wide. Though she had no concept of who Doomsday was or how horribly powerful the monster was, she knew that the Justice League being captured was a very bad thing. She had come here to pack her things and leave, but how could she possibly go anywhere and leave her friends and her love in this situation alone? Dick had broken her heart, that was true, but that would be nothing compared to if something horrible happened to him after she left when she could have stayed to help them

"So, what are we to do now?" Kori questioned, still trying to catch up to speed on the whole plan, or lack there of.

Troia shrugged. "Pray to whoever you pray to that Nightwing comes back with something that can help us."

Before Kori could respond, a low rumbling sound could be heard, causing everyone to fall silent and look around the room, searching for it's source.

"It's not me," the Flash swore as the sound grew louder and louder.

The next thing any of them knew, a Lexcorp ship, the very same one from the Watch Tower, came crashing through the closed hanger doors, coming to a skidding landing in the middle of the bay, the hatch door opening shortly thereafter, and the Brotherhood exited one by one, but no one in the room's eyes were on them. They all fell on the horrible looking creature that crawled in through the whole in the hangers.

Kori and the rest of the team looked on wide eyed and horrified at the monster, this being the first time that anyone had seen it up close. Some had heard stories of the beast, others had been watching the live news broadcast when Superman, assisted by members of the Justice League, had fought the mysterious creature a couple of years ago in the center of Metropolis, but the demon like monster was far worse in person that any story or television image could do it justice.

Superman had barely been able to beat the immortal beast unconscious just long enough for a secret government agency known as A.R.G.U.S to contain it in a chamber designed to keep it a sleep. That was the last any of them had heard of it. How Lex got it, and how he was controlling it, were questions no one had the answers to.

As the Brotherhood approached, Doomsday walking just behind them, Troia swallowed hard and activated her earpiece. "Nightwing, this is Troia. Get here as quickly as possible with a plan. The Brotherhood is here and they have Doomsday with them. It's going to be a blood bath if you don't come back loaded."

"On the way," was the only response she got. God, she hoped he had something that would help.

* * *

 **3rd Peron POV**

 **Saturday, October 26th - 5:00 PM**

 **The Bat Cave**

Nightwing entered the apparently empty Bat Cave, the only sounds to be heard being that of water dripping somewhere in the distance and bats squeaking in the darkness above. To his surprise however, when he rounded the corner to where the giant computer sat, he found someone already sitting in Batman's computer chair. It was Alfred, the long time butler and father figure of Bruce. He turned the chair around, a sad look on the old man's face. "I assumed when the emergency alert went off in here, and I saw it was coming from the Watch Tower, that Master Bruce was in trouble. I suppose you are here to confirm that?"

Nightwing nodded with a sympathetic expression, knowing all too well how much Alfred cared for Bruce. He did pretty much raise him after all. "They were attacked by the Brotherhood, and managed to capture the entire league. Batman put a tracer on their ship, which I can track from here, but even so, we can't beat them. They have somehow managed to acquire Doomsday and are controlling it. We need a plan, but I'm lost."

Alfred turned back to the Bat Computer. "And I suppose you believe Master Bruce had one for such a situation."

"He wouldn't be Batman if he didn't," was all that Nightwing could respond with.

Alfred knew that was the truth. Bruce had a plan for nearly everything, so this should be no exception, but the computer had countless files stored in it's hard drive. Where should he start? Alfred stroked his chin, clearly in thought, as Nightwing came up behind him, looking up at the blank home screen of the computer. "Search for any recordings on the Brotherhood," Dick requested.

The old butler did as asked, not having any better ideas, and to both of their surprises, there was a video recording from just the previous day. "Play that," Nightwing said, crossing his arms over his chest.

Alfred pressed the play button and Batman appeared on the screen, looking just as serious as always. "If this is being viewed, I am assuming that the Justice League has been either captured or killed by the criminal organization known as the Brotherhood. This is the response plan. Before continuing to view this video, if you are not Nightwing or Robin, please do not go any further. Only continue if they are deceased or captured."

Batman adjusts slightly before continuing. "I have reason to believe that Lex has bribed, black mailed, and killed high ranking government officials in order to come in possession of the creature known as Doomsday. Through my routine hacking of A.R.G.U.S's top secret computer files, I have found that the creature was reported 'mysteriously missing' from it's containment chamber three weeks ago. I then reasoned that there, are only a few men in the entire world that could cause such a thing to happen, and even fewer with the motive to do so. My immediate thought was to hack Lexcorp's systems to find any clue that could potentially implicate Lex Luthor."

Nightwing wanted to move the video forward, kind of in a rush to find information, but he was glad he didn't. "Not only did I manage to retrieve proof of a five hundred million dollar money transfer to one of A.R.G.U.S's leaders, I also found the blue prints for plans to make a device that could send electromagnetic waves through the brain of anyone wearing it, theoretically giving one the ability to control one's thoughts and therefore actions. I fear that the device will be used to control Doomsday if Lex is indeed in the possession of the creature, and if that is the case, then defeating the brotherhood will present a far more challenging problem, but if you are still watching this, then obviously we have lost."

Batman pauses, appearing to gather his thoughts. "Titans, you are the last remaining hope for Earth. You are young, naive, and sometimes reckless. You were not designed to have to defend Earth right away. All of you still have ton to learn. You were meant for Earth's future protection, but unfortunately the the future is now, and you are the last line of defense. I wish I could tell you exactly how to beat the Brotherhood, but the truth is, I'm not quite sure of that myself."

Nightwing sighed. Well, that's just great. If Batman didn't have a plan to stop them, then they were fucked. The video continued. "I can tell you this though. In their research of the creature, A.R.G.U.S scanned the DNA of Doomsday. It turns out that it's of Kryptonian origin, but it's something far more ancient than Superman, a possibly species that existed long before humanoid Kryptonians. However, there is still a chance that it suffers the same affects of Kyrptonite that Superman does. If that is the case, you may be able to take it out of the fight with the Kyptonite spear I keep in the vault."

Another pause. "If that is successful, then it comes down to all of you being able to defeat the Brotherhood. I know it is a lot to ask out of such young heroes, but I have paid more attention to this team then you think. You can win this if you can just take out Doomsday."

He got quiet for a long moment, before finally speaking again. "Dick, I am willing to bet it's you watching this. Who else would even think to come here?" A slight laugh escaped him. "You know me so well... You know, I know I haven't always been the best father to you. At first I had no idea what I was doing... hell, I still don't, but I want to say some things... some things that I should have said a long time ago. I'm proud of you, Dick. I'm proud of the hero you've become, but more importantly I am proud of the man. Despite blood and last names, you are my son... and... and I love you. I hope you know I do. Tim, Babs, and Alfred too. I know I didn't say it enough, but I do."

His eyes became slightly watery and he chocked back the tears. "Dick if this is you, I have something for you in the small silver box in the vault that will be perfect for you, something I believe only you will be able to use to it's full capabilities. I'm sure it'll help in the battle that is to come. Good luck, my son. Now go give them hell."

Nightwing stood there motionless for a moment, tears threatening to fall from his eyes. He had waited a long time to hear those words, and now that he had, he was more motivated then ever to stop the brotherhood and rescue his father... that was, if he was even still alive. He had to hurry.

Nightwing rushed over to the vault, Alfred following behind him. He entered the security code and the heavy metal doors opened, revealing the items held inside, which included a large number of explosives, at least fifty blocks of Kryptonite, the spear and silver box he was talking about, as well as various other items that had to be locked away.

Nightwing quickly grabbed the spear, the only real hope of defeating Doomsday and laid it at his side and kneeled down in front of the small silver box that sat on the floor. His hand grazed over the top of it, and it may just have been in his head, but he could have sworn he felt some kind of pulsing energy coming from inside. He glanced back at Alfred. "Do you know what's in here?"

The butler shook his head. "No idea, Master Dick. Half of the things Master Bruce keeps down here I choose to have no knowledge of."

Nightwing turned back to the box and slowly lifted it, the contents of it surprising him more than he expected it to. Inside the box sat one lone item. A Green Lantern power ring. How the hell did he get that? It really shouldn't surprise him though, with the amount of of items he had down here and all.

Nightwing thought back to what Bruce said. 'Something that will be perfect for you.' The Green Lantern ring ran off of pure willpower, and Nightwing had to admit he had a ton of that with all the things he had overcame in his life. He certainly had no intention of being a Green Lantern, being a space cop not being on his bucket list, but he certainly did need the power right about now, so for this situation, it was perfect. As he reached to grab the ring, his headset went off, it being none other than Troia. "Nightwing, this is Troia. Get here as quickly as possible with a plan. The Brotherhood is here and they have Doomsday with them. It's going to be a blood bath if you don't come back loaded," she informed, clearly trying to hide the panic in her voice.

Nightwing had to be fast, otherwise all of his friends would either be dead or captured by the time he got there. Grabbing the ring, he responded. "On the way."

* * *

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Saturday, October 26th - 5:20 PM**

 **Mount Justice**

"How did you even find us?" Red Arrow questioned the Brotherhood, already having his bow drawn, preparing to fire at the slightest movement.

Deathstroke began to laugh. "We knew you would come to the Watch Tower, so we had one of our nano drones follow you back here. We figured you would coming looking for us sooner or later, so we decided to be nice and just drop by. As a courtesy to you, we can end your miserable existence in the comfort of your own home, before we kill all of your mentors."

"Tell us where they are!" Superboy demanded, his eyes raging.

"Don't worry. They will be joining you very soon in the afterlife," Lex assured with an evil smile. With that, he turned back to the rest of the Brotherhood and Doomsday. "Kill all of them. No captives this time."

"Just the way I like it," Sinestro cooed before firing his yellow energy directly at Kori. She was about to retaliate and attempt to block the blast when green energy, far different from here own, shielded her. Everyone turned to look at the training bay entrance, the origin of the energy, just to left of the Brotherhood, finding Nightwing floating in the air. Where his blue bird insignia previously was, a green one now sat. His blue wrist guard were now green as well and his eyes glowed with the same emerald brightness that Kori's did. He had a lantern ring on his right hand, just like Hal's, and in his left he carried a spear with a razor sharp Kryptonite edge.

A smirk formed on his face, the power feeling him with confidence. "Did anyone order an ass whooping?"

"Dude..." Beast Boy and the Flash muttered at the same time. "Awesome."

One thing was certain. Shit was about to get real...

* * *

 **Shit goes down next chapter. Will the Titans win? Is Doomsday to powerful to be stopped? Will everyone make it out alive? Find out next chapter! Review!**

 **The Story Continued - The sequel to The Story Of US. Four years after Dick left for the army, he returns home, his time in the service now done. Everyone is excited to see him after such a long time away, including the newly graduated Kori, but with a new man in her life she really cares about, will her old feelings for Dick come back and complicate things for her just when life was starting to make sense, and is Dick even the same person he was when he left?**

 **Every Other Weekend - After eight years together, in which they had a beautiful daughter, Mar'i Grayson, the former coupe divorced, their different wants and desires forcing their lives in separate directions, but when Mar'i is captured on a routine weekend visit to her father's house, the five year old girl's mother and father must step back into their roles as heroes and rescue their little girl, and who knows, they may find that their is still some love between them along the way.**


	17. Chapter 17

**Sorry guys for the late update. It's been a busy week and I have had almost no time to write. I'm actually impressed I got this out, but keep up all the great support! Its my motivation.**

* * *

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Saturday, October 26th - 5:25 PM**

 **Mount Justice**

Sinestro sighed in annoyance at Nightwing's unfortunate presence. "Just when you get rid of one Green Lantern, another one takes it's place. I swear, they are like fleas."

"No matter," Lex began, a smirk on his face. "Are plans haven't changed in the least. All of them will die today."

"How about a little less talky talky and a little more fighty fighty," Nightwing taunted, flying over to land beside Kori, only sharing a brief glance with her before refocusing of the opposition in front of him.

The Flash glanced at Doomsday before looking over at Nightwing with a bewildered expression on his masked face. "Actually I was okay with the talky talky," he whispered to his friend with an attitude. In his mind, the more 'talky takly' meant the less 'deathy deathy."

Lex smirked. "As you wish." With that he fired a Krptonite energy beam directy at Superboy, immediately trying to take out one of the team's most dangerous powerhouses, but Ms. Martian, the odd name M'gann had chosen for herself, stepped in front of the blast, it not affecting her in the least. With her shielding him, Superboy blasted his blazing heat vision at Lex, managing to damage one of his robotic arms in the process. Ms. Martian then charged forward, phasing through the metallic suit and ripping out a tone of the wires as she exited, causing the suit to spark before breaking down completely, falling limp to the floor, leaving Lex to crawl out of it and scurry away from the battle.

The Lantern ring energized Nightwing and the mighty Tameranian warrior princess, Starfire, took off into the sky, combating Black Atom, Bizzaro, and Sinestro all at once. Starfire mainly focused on Black Atom, a smart match for her. Not only could she match his strength and raw power, but she was faster and better trained in combat than him. The two crashed into each other with incredible force, causing both to bounce off in a stalemate of strength. Seeing he coudn't simpy over power her like he did with the rest of the team, he fired his Black lighting at her, hoping to knock her out of the sky, but the Tameranina zipped through his attempts with impressive agility as she rocket toward him.

With a loud battle cry, she crashed into him, sending him flying straight through the common room's wall and into the training bay where he came to a skidding landing on the floor. Before he could he even possibly move, though, she was on top of him berating him with one powerful hit after another. Gritting his teeth, he managed to blast her with just enough power to knock her off of him, before the aerial battle of the super beings continued.

Back in the common room, Nightwing was using his wits mixed with the power of the Green Lantern to ring to beat Sinestro down. The Yellow Lantern flew away from the new Green Lantern, attempting to escape the onslaught, but Nightwing gave chase, Bizzaro following behind him, most likely not even sure what was happening at the moment. Sinestro glanced back, seeing the hero nearing him, but when he turned back around, he ran straight into a green energy wall which quickly wrapped around him, like a boa constrictor capturing it's next meal.

With that, Nightwing quickly turned around and tossed the Yellow Lantern as hard as he possibly could, straight at Bizzaro, who managed to catch him with his impressive, Superman like strength, but with the dim witted villain distracted, he paid no attention to the charging Nightwing, who thrusted the Kryptonite spear straight through the Kryptonian clones lower stomach, sending him falling to the ground with a yelp of pain, landing on top of Sinestro, blood pouring from his abdomen. The wound wouldn't kill him, but he was definitely out of the fight.

The Flash and the Reverse Flash continued their normal dance of red and yellow lighting , battling for dominance, their powers so similar that both struggled to gain the upper hand. The Red headed speedster knew that he wasn't going to beat him like this. He needed to think, which was admittedly hard to do on occasions unless it was about food or girls, but he did manage to come up with a plan in a very Nightwing like fashion if he did say so himself.

As the two speedsters began to head toward the wall that lead to the dorm rooms, the Flash slowed down just enough to manage to get behind him, and wrapping his arms around him so that he couldn't change direction, ran him straight through the wall followed by going through all of the dorm room walls as well, completely destroying them in the process. He would have to apologize for that later... you know, if everyone actually lived through this and all.

One he came to a stop just outside of the common room, he dropped the beaten, bloodied, Reverse Flash to floor where he laid unconscious, a mixture of drool and blood falling from his mouth. The Flash then dusted himself off, before zipping off again to help the others, making sure to run over, back over, and then run over the yellow suited speedster once again as he did.

Static, Bumble Bee, Beast Boy, Robin, and Blue Beetle ganged up on other Villains like Bane, Deathstroke, and Cheetah, using their numbers to take them down and get them out of the way.

From the back of the room, Red Arrow and Artemis used their arrows to pick off one member of the Brotherhood after another, trying to make the fight as even as possible for the ones who were attempting to fight off the monster, Doomsday. Raven who floated in mid air, just behind the two archers, used her strange and powerful abilities to toss them around the room like rag dolls and block oncoming attacks directed at the duo in front of her.

With all members of the Brotherhood currently distracted or knocked out by one of their teammates, Troia, Aqualad, Cyborg, and the now free Superboy and Ms. Martain, all attempted to combat Doomsday, but to this point they were loosing and badly at that. The creature was far more powerful than any of them. Superboy's strength couldn't match it. Troia's Amazonian combat skills were ineffective. Aqualad's razor sharp water swords couldn't even make a scratch on the monster's body. Cyborg's powerful laser cannon was no more than an annoyance, and Ms. Martian's phasing, shape shifting, flight, and mind reading were all completely useless against the immortal beast.

Troia charged at the monster, attempting to get behind it in order to attempt to bring it down, but with a swipe of it's arm it sent her flying into the far wall of the common room, causing her to bounce off and land on her back on the floor below. Coughing up a little blood, she watch as Superboy attempted to pounce on Doomsday, only to be caught and slammed into the floor, nearly knocking the young Kryptonian unconscious in the process.

They had to do something and do it fast. Even with most of the Brotherhood out f the fight for the moment, it didn't appear that anything they attempted even phased the beast. From where she lied, gripping her surely broken ribs, she looked up at Nightwing, who was in the middle of fighting Black Atom, not far from where Starfire, whom was taking on an injured Sinestro, them having switched opponents at some point.

She cringed in pain as she reached for her earpiece, activating it. "Nightwing, we need to end this soon or Doomsday is going to kill all of us. If you have a plan, now would be the time to put it into action."

Nightwing glanced down at her briefly, wanting to go help her, but knowing he couldn't at the moment, still guarding off numerous attacks from Black Atom with a green shield of energy "Batman said that Doomsday is of Kryptonian origin, meaning Kryptonite might have the same affect on it that it does on other Kryptonians, hence the spear." He glanced back down at his friends, knowing if he didn't do something soon, they would all end up like Troia... or worse. "I need to get the spear through it, but I don't know if I can even get close enough to do so."

"Well, you better figure out something soon, otherwise this is all going to end really badly for us." she urged, still coughing.

Nightwing knew she was right. He had to act quickly, but he knew he wasn't fast enough to get anywhere near Doomsday even with his Lantern powers, but he knew someone who was. Starfire. He turned his attention back to Black Atom, flying just under his attempted lighting strike before wrapping him in his energy beam and slinging him across the room straight at Sinestro who was still battling Starfire. The evil duo went flying, but before they could regain control of their momentum, a giant green energy fist hit then with such force that it knocked them not only through the wall of the common room, but straight through the training bay wall as well, causing them to roll down the side of the mountain before coming to a stop in the lake just outside of Mount Justice, effectively removing both of them from the battle.

With both Nightwing and Starfire now freed up he flew over to her. "Kori, I'm going to need your help."

It was the first thing he had said to her in days, in though she desperately wanted to talk to him about the hell was going on with him, not wasn't the time. She had to stay focused on the task at hand, otherwise lives would be lost, and that was a burden she refused to carry on her shoulder. "What do you need of me?" she asked.

"We have to get this spear through Doomsday, and I'm not fast enough to do it, but you are," he explained, handing off the weapon to her. "It's up to you now, Kor. You're the only one with the speed and strength to do this."

She hesitated a moment before nodding, her eyes growing more confident as she did. Starfire turned in the direction of the mighty beast, staring down at it with her glowing green eyes. It was scarier than anything she had ever seen before, and far more powerful, but Nightwing was correct. It was up to her now. With a loud battle cry she rocketed herself toward Doomsday's back with incredible speed, a trail of scorching green energy following behind her.

Just as she neared however, the monster turned around, spotting her incoming form. Just as the Kryptonite spear was thrusted through the monsters chest, it caught her in one of its hands, squeezing the life out of her with its ungodly strength. They both screamed out in horrible pain in unison. Kori was much more durable that humans, but far from that of Superman. She couldn't hold up to this much longer. It was literally going to break her in half.

The spear was clearly affecting Doomsday, but not like it would Superman. It was just slowed down and slightly weakened by it, far from the desired affect, which was of course taking it out of the fight for good. With a loud roar, the beast picked Starfire up into the air and using the bone like claws on its other hand, rammed them straight through the Tameranian's stomach, her screaming out in pure agony as it did.

"Kori!" Nightwing yelled out in a panic as he watched the blood begin to pour from her stomach and her eyes roll into the back of her head. The hero zipped toward the monster like a suicide pilot with a death wish, thinking of nothing else but saving her. She couldn't die today. She just couldn't. He had to tell her how he he felt, had to hear how she felt. Life couldn't be this cruel, could it? With a loud cry, he formed his a giant energy blade and swung it forward, cutting the arm holding Kori straight off, causing her and the said arm to fall lifelessly to the floor, neither moving in the least.

Doomsday roared out in pain and before Nightwing could react, the monster swiped its claws at the hero, them going straight through his stomach with such force that blood splattered all over the beast. Nightwing almost instantly fell limp, barely even able to muster a noise of pain. Doomsday then tossed him aside, sending him flying across the room. The Flash quickly ran under his best friend, catching him before he hit the hard ground. "Buddy! Buddy! Open your eyes!" The Flash demanded, shaking him slightly as he kneeled on the grond, holding his limp body to him, not even caring that his uniform was becoming covered by Nigthwing's blood. "Somebody help!" he screamed to his friends, tears in his eyes. "He's dying! He can't die!" Wally couldn't lose him. They had grown up together. They were brothers.

Lex, who was standing off in the far corner, away from all the conflict, began to laugh madly at the situation. "Face it! It's over! You can't win this! You may defeat the Brotherhood, but Doomsday cannot be stopped! You will all meet your end today!"

The monster roared, ripping the spear out of it's body with it's remaining arm and tossing it to the side, before heading toward the remaining heroes, who stood absolutely no chance against it.

In the back of the room, Raven swallowed hard. Troia was broken, Nightwing and Starfire were either dead or very close to it, and nothing they had tried against the monster had worked. If something didn't happen soon, all her friends were going to die soon and she would have to sit by and watch it happen.

Doomsday was so powerful, but she knew of a way to take it down, but she couldn't do it alone. She wasn't strong enough. If she wanted to stop it and save her friends, then she would have to borrow power from someone, someone who made Doomsday look like an innocent child, someone who was the very definition of pure evil. Her father, the demon Trigon and one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful being in all of existence.

There would be severe consequences if she did this, consequences she would one day very soon regret. She knew that, but she had to stop this monster. She couldn't watch her friends... no, her family die. Not here, not today, not like this. Closing her eyes, she bowed her head, and allowed her inner consciousness to drift off. "Father, I know you are listening. Give me the strength to stop this monster, to save my friends. Please."

In her head she could hear a deep, echoing voice's evil laugh, one she knew very well as her fathers. "Granted, my daughter."

She hated herself for having to do this, for allowing him into her mind when she had worked so hard all these years to keep him out, but there was no other choice. Her body began to surge with dark energy, straight from the depths of hell itself. When her eyes reopened, her normal blue orbs were gone now replaced by four glowing red ones, the very same as her fathers. None of her friends noticed, to busy focusing on their approaching doom, something she was glad for. They didn't know who her father was and she wanted to keep it that way as long as possible.

She glared at Doomsday. He wanted to take her friends from her. He wanted to make her alone again. No! She wouldn't have it! The evil energy and hate inside her began to build, rising higher and higher like a tidal wave to the point that she felt like she was about to explode with power. "Azerath Metrion Zenthos!"

Suddenly a black Raven of dark energy arose directly in front of Doomsday, wrapping its wings around the monster, and just like that, it descended back into the floor, taking the beast with it, straight down to the scorching depths of hell, so deep that it would never be able to escape.

Everyone turned to look at her, in astonishment. "How... That... Why..." Beast Boy attempted, not even totally sure what just happened or why she hadn't just done that to begin with.

"No time," Aqualad began. Explanations would come later. "Cyborg, Robin, Raven, get Nightwing, Starfire, and Troia medical attention now. The rest of us will round up the Borotherhood and get them in containment cells."

At this point, Lex, the only member of the Brotherhood still conscious, attempted to run, knowing with Doomsday gone this was all over, but Red Arrow shot an arrow straight through his shoulder, pinning him to the wall. He wasn't getting away. Not after what he had caused. There would be punishment. Nightwing, Starfire, and Troia were all rushed to treatment, Troia the only one looking like she was going to make it out of this alive, Nightwing and Starfire's injuries being just too severe to expect a good out come.

The Brotherhood was gathered and secured. Interrogation to find out where the Justice League was and punishment for their crimes would come, but it didn't matter. Mount Justice, their home, was completely destroyed, and two of their friends were on the verge of death. They had already left their mark, and it very well could be one that may never heal.

* * *

 **Wow. Will Nightwing and Starfire survive? What will be the outcome of Raven using Trigon's powers? Something tells me the Titans are still in for a hell of a lot of trouble in the future. Review guys! Tell me what you think!**


	18. Chapter 18

**I would like to apologize to all of you. I've been super busy the last few weeks, but the story will continue until completion. Keep up all the great support!**

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Saturday, October 26th - 11:00 PM**

 **Mount Justice**

The Flash stood, arms crossed over his chest as he looked on at Dick and Kori, who both laid motionless in hospital sized beds in the underground medical portion of Mount Justice, which so happened to be one of the few things still intact after the battle with the Brotherhood. The usually easy going speedster watched with an extreme seriousness on his face as Raven and Cyborg worked away on the two, Raven using some strange purple energy to treat their wounds and Cyborg monitoring their vitals and transfusing them blood as they lost it. It was an externally slow, tedious process to say the least, but it was their only chance at survival.

Both were barely alive when they were brought in, them just barely hanging on to their lives, and since then, the situation hadn't improved very much, but the Flash was confident they would pull through. Kori was pretty durable and Dick was too damn stubborn to die... at least, that's what he kept telling himself. He honestly didn't know what he woud do if he lost his best friend. They were brothers. They had been through everything together. All the good times and the bad times. If Dick died, who was going to have his back when all hell broke loose and he felt like their was no one to turn to? ...He just couldn't die.

Being so focused on the situation in front of him, he was only vaguely aware when Artemis came up to stand at his side. "How are you doing?" she asked, knowing he was really struggling on the inside at the moment, but seemed like the only appropriate thing to ask.

He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye before turning his attention back to the horrible scene in front of him. "Well, Mount Justice is destroyed, we still don't know where the Justice League is being held, and my best friend got slashed through the stomach and might die, so it hasn't be the best day."

Hearing the clear attitude in his voice, she quickly became agitated. "I know you're worried about Dick, but that doesn't mean you should be so pissy." She sighed, looking away for a moment, before turning back to him. "I know this is really getting to you, Wally, but now, more than ever, we need to stick together. We're all we got."

He stared at her a long moment before finally dropping his crossed arms to his side in defeat. "You're right. It's... It's just that Dick and I have been so close for so many years. When I saw Doomsday do that to him I... I don't know. I guess I pictured how life would be without him around. Honestly I was more scared for him than I was at the fact Doomsday was coming for us.

Artemis offered the hero a sad smile. "Can I tell you something just between us and promise you won't freak out?"

He nodded.

Artemis stared down at the floor, unable to meat his gaze. "I grew up in a dark place where death was a common thing. Seeing someone you considered your friend die was just another day because it happened so often. You just continued on, like it never happened because that was simply what was expected of you. You see, up until about three months ago, I was a member of the League of Assassins, but I found myself... disagreeing with what they were telling me was the 'right' thing to do' as I got older, so I left and sought out someone who I thought could help me find my purpose. Green Arrow. Him and Batman were both legends to the league, and he seemed like a lot friendlier option to turn to."

"He thought me joining the Titans would be a good idea, and to be honest, I wasn't anywhere near sure at first, but I grew to really care about you guys, which is insane to me because I was raised to believe that such emotions were weakness, but... I don't believe that anymore, not after meeting all of you. If anything their your strength. The way you guys fight for each other... it's incredible, and that's why I know Dick and Kori are going to pull through. They know we need them, and they won't let us down."

She paused, glancing at his face to attempt to read his expression, only finding him looking vastly unsurprised the statement that she was a former member of the League of Assassins. That was kind of a huge revaluation after all. "You knew didn't you?" she questioned, a little anger in her tone.

"What?!" The Flash exclaimed in denial, forgetting to act surprised at her confession. "No! Absolutely not! I mean, how could I have possibly knew? You're crazy!"

Artemis frowned and crossed her arms over her chest. "Wally."

He sighed, sheepishly rubbing the back of his. "We may have done some digging when you first got here," he lied, not wanting to throw Green Arrow under the proverbial bus.

"So, wait... you guys new all this time?" she questioned.

"Just a few of us. Me, Dick, Roy, Donna, and Kal. That's it. I swear," he informed.

"That's like thirty something percent of the team, Wally!" She couldn't believe that they had know all this time. She wanted to be angry that she had been deceived, but then something occurred to her. They had known all this time and they didn't treat her any differently than any other member of the team. She had been accepted as family just as the rest of them, so was it really all that bad? She had been dreading the moment they found out, fearing they would no longer trust her, but now, she didn't have to worry about that anymore. Still though, she had questions. "Why did all of you accept me if you knew about me? I mean, I've done a lot of messed up shit."

The Flash shrugged, glancing back at Dick to make sure everything was still going relatively okay before returning his attention to Artemis. "It's simple. We all have pasts and done things that we regret. Donna has killed before. So has Roy. Not something their proud of though. Hell, I once ate taco bell three times in one day. You don't think I regretted that? Talk about diarrhea for a week. Not pretty."

If anyone else had said this, she would have cringed in disgust, but because it was Wally that somehow made it funny. Shaking her head, she responded. "Thank you."

"For what?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Being you," was her only response before giving him a kiss on the cheek and walking off, leaving him to watch her retreating form, only slightly distracted from his best friend.

Meanwhile, in the interrogation room, Red Arrow and Aqualad stood looking over Lex Luthor who was changed down to a table, unable to move. Since he was the apparent leader of the Brotherhood, they figured that he would be the best place to start.

Red Arrow glared at him, his teeth clinched. "I'm only going to ask you once. Where are you keeping the league?"

Lex laughed. "Like I would tell you. Most of them will die of dehydration before you locate them, so this plan wasn't a compete failure after all."

Red Arrow shrugged. "Fine. I tried to do this the easy way." With that he withdrew an arrow from his quiver, placed it in his bow, and aimed it a Lex.

Lex look astonished for a moment before a slow smirk creeped across his face. "You won't do it. Your hero morals won't allow you to. After all, if you were willing to kill me to get what you want, then you would be just like the rest of us."

"You know what," Red Arrow began, putting his bow down. "You're right. I won't shoot you. It's too messy." He then reached into his utility belt and pulled out a syringe filled with some form of liquid, causing Lex's eyes to widen. "In this syringe is the venom of the Belcher's Sea Snake, the most venomous snake in the world. This much of its venom will kill a human in about five minutes." He then walked over and forced Lex's chained arm down to the table and injected him with the venom, the evil man screaming in panic in response.

Red Arrow then stepped back and pulled out another syringe. "This is the cure for the venom. I'll give it to you when you tell us where the league is, and I'd probably get on that if I were you. You're a little low on time after all.

"You can't do this!" Lex shouted. "You can't kill me!"

Red Arrow crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the far wall. "If you die, it's not because of me. I provided you with the opportunity to save yourself. It's completely up to you if you choose to accept it or not."

Lex gritted his teeth, beginning to become nauseated and dizzy. "Fine! Give me the cure!" he pleaded.

"Not until you tell us where the Justice League is," Aqualad responded coldly.

"They're being held in an isolation chamber under the metropolis Lex Corp building. Take the private elevator in my office. The access code is 98349. It'll take you right there. Now help me!" he blurted.

Red Arrow stepped up to him and injected him the cure before turning to Aqualad. "Let's go." The duo headed for the door, but before they exited the room, Red Arrow turned back around to glare at the chained Luthor. "By the way, you better hope that you were telling the truth because I'm fresh out of the cure, but I have a ton of venom left with your name written all over it."

Lex just swallowed as they headed through the room's threshold.

* * *

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Sunday, October 27th - 12:00 AM**

 **Mount Justice**

After hours of tirelessly taking care of Dick and Kori's injuries, Raven finally concluded her work and took a seat on the bench just outside of the medical room, burying her face in her hands out of utter exhaustion. There was nothing else she could do for them, and though both of them were stable for the moment, their lives were still hanging by a very thin thread, both having severe internal organ damage, which was mostly repaired, but there were just some wounds outside of her healing abilities. It was just a waiting game at this point.

She sat there in silence for a few moments, going over what a massive wreck the day had been in her head, when she felt the presence of someone sitting next to her. Raising up her head, she looked over to find Gar there, an exhausted smile on his face. "Hey Rae," he greeted with the best smile he could muster. "How are you doing?"

"Tired," was her only response. She just wanted the day to be over at this point, but with no where to sleep, Dick and Kori still in critical condition, and Red Arrow, Aqualad, and few other members of the team gone to retrieve the Justice League from wherever they were being held, she wouldn't be getting what she wanted anytime soon.

"Yeah, me too," he agreed before looking away for a moment, clearly in thought. "So, um, Rae, about the whole making Doomsday disappear thing... why didn't you do that in the first place and where did you send him?"

She knew both of those questions would be coming and next time it wouldn't be Gar asking them, so she figured now was a good chance to practice her lying skills, obviously unable to tell anyone the truth. "I don't always have that type of power. It has to build up and I sent him to another dimension, somewhere where he can't hurt anyone." Technically the last part was true. Hell was indeed a different dimension, so she wasn't lying completely.

"Wow, remind me not to piss you off," he joked.

She smiled slightly at her friend, rolling her eyes as she did.

Gar glanced into the medical room, seeing both Dick and Kori laying in bed, unconscious. "They going to be okay?" he nodded in their direction, taking a brief note that Wally hadn't left the room yet and now the injured Donna, her arm in a slang and her rib cage wrapped, had joined him.

Raven shrugged. "I hope so, but I can't promise anything. Dick was pretty bad, but Kori was really torn up. Plus her organs were surprisingly different than humans. I mean, she had eight stomachs, so I did the best as I could do."

Gar sighed running his hands through his green hair. "I really hope they make it. Things won't be the same around here if they don't."

"Yeah," was all Raven could respond with, knowing that either way, a lot of things were going to change pretty soon.

* * *

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Sunday, October 27th - 12:20 AM**

 **Lexcorp**

Aqualad, Red Arrow, Bumble Bee, Blue Beetle, Super Boy, and Static all exited the secret underground elevator at Lexcorp, finding exactly what Lex said would be there. The Justice League trapped with inside a force field like chamber, that repelled any energy waves fired at it, eliminating any chance of the them getting out, while the Brotherhood was away.

Superboy instantly turned his eyes on Superman, finding him standing, the bullet having been dug out of his shoulder by Batman, an the wound it caused almost completely healed. The trapped league members, who were all relatively okay, also noticed the team, the second they stepped out of the elevator, all of them expecting it to be the Brotherhood, come back to finish them off, so it was a pleasant surprise to say the very least.

The ones who were sitting, in the middle of contemplating their imminent demise, stood, pleased expressions on their faces. "Roy!" Green Arrow exclaimed from behind the force field, ecstatic to see his young protege. "You guys made it!"

"You sound surprised," the archer retorted with a slight frown as he looked for the electrical panel that controlled the confinement, finding on the very back wall, just behind the cage of energy. He fired an arrow at it, causing it to explode and shut off, the force field dropping as it did, releasing the league in the process.

"What happened?" Batman instantly questioned, observing each member of the group, finding none of them wanted to make direct eye contact with him. "Where's the rest of the Titans?"

"Well..." Aqualad began, not even sure where to start. "We recieved the alert from the Watch Tower and went to check on it. Obviously we found out what happened and that the Brotherhood had Doomsday. We planned on tracking them down, hoping it could lead them to you, but we still didn't have a plan to fight them off when we did find them, so Nightwing to left to see if you had anything. Long story short, before he got back, they infiltrated Mount Justice, Nightwing showed up at the last second with a Green Lantern ring and a Kryptonite spear, we took down the Brotherhood, but couldn't seem to beat Doomsday no matter what we did, and then some other things happened," he answered, not wanting to finish the story.

"What things?" Batman seethed.

"Why don't you tell him, Roy?" Aqualad quipped, effectively throwing his long time friend under the bus.

Red Arrow flashed him a death glare that could rival even the Dark Knights before returning to the situation at hand. "Kori stabbed Doomsday with the spear, but in the process of doing that, Doomsday thrusted its claws through her. Nightwing attempted to save her, he even managed to cut off its arm, but he just wasn't fast enough to get away, and..."

"And what?" Batman demanded.

"Doomsday got him too," Aqualad concluded. "Raven managed to find the power to make it disappear, but it was too late. Te damaged had been done. The last we checked, she was working on them, but... the internal organ damage, it's bad." He looked down, no longer able to hold the Caped Crusader's gaze. "Things don't look good for either of them."

The astonished, hurt look on Batman's face said far more then words ever could. "I need to see my son. Now."

* * *

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Sunday, October 27th - 12:40 AM**

 **Mount Justice**

 _Beep. Beep. Beep._ The repetitive, electronic noise faded in and out over and over again for what felt like an eternity. It was the only thing that truly existed in the darkness that had become his world. Where was he even at? What did he do to get here. Where were his friends? All these things he wondered, but he couldn't quite find the answer to.

What was even his last memory. Watching the video at the Bat Cave. The video about how to stop the Brotherhood and Doomsday. Did he ever make it back? Wait, Donna called him. His friends were in trouble! He had to get there! He had to save them! ...Or had already been there? He could faintly remember the fight now. Just scattered shakey images, like blurry snap shots in time. Even so, his blood was beginning to rush quicker. Something bad happened. Something awful.

...It hit him.

"Kori!" he screamed out in pure fear as he rocketed up in his bed, sweat dripping from his body like a cold winter rain falling from the sky. He eyes immediately fell on her lifeless form in the bed a few feet away from him. "No," he whispered.

* * *

 **So, the Justice League is freed and Dick is awake, but what about poor Kori? How will Dick handle it? This arch of the story is almost over, but we still have two to go. Review!**


	19. Chapter 19

**And now for the epic conclusion of Arch One of Project Titan. Enjoy and Review!**

* * *

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Sunday, October 27th - 12:45 AM**

 **Mount Justice**

Finding strength buried somewhere deep within him, Dick somehow manged to thrust his body off of his bed, ripping all the wires attached to him off in the process, and was able to make it to Kori's bedside before collapsing to his knees in pain.

Wally, who had stepped out of the room for a brief moment to use the bathroom, heard the commotion from just outside the door and rushed inside, finding his best friend not only awake, but,kneeling at Kori's bedside, his hand clutching hers as if he let go he would lose her forever. "Dick!" the speedster exclaimed, running to his best friend's side. "You're awake!"

Dick looked at Wally wide eyed, clearly distressed beyond comprehension. "Kori, is she okay?" He glanced at her lifeless form, taking account of her cold, pale skin, which was usually unnaturally warm and bright, and uneven falling chest, seeing that the answer was probably a no.

Wally frowned, wanting to lie to him and tell him she was going to be okay, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it. "Raven did everything she could to heal her, buddy... but her injuries... they were really bad. We didn't even know if you would pull through, and hers were a lot worse than yours. I'm not saying she is going to die, it's just that it's a waiting game now," he attempted to ease him.

Dick was speechless for a moment, the scene of Doomsday thrusting his claws through her torso playing over and over again in his head like a movie on replay. How could he have not saved her? He glanced at the lantern ring still on his finger. Even with all that power, he couldn't do anything! He should have been faster! He shouldn't have asked her to spear Doomsday! He was the leader! He should of have had a better plan! This was all his fault! Tears falling from his eyes, he buried his face in the palm of her hand, shaking it back and forth. "No, Kori. No. I'm so sorry. This is all my fault."

Wally, seeing how badly Dick was hurting, placed his hand on his upper back, trying to comfort him anyway he knew how. "Buddy, this isn't your fault. You lead us the best you could. Hell, the best anyone could. We were fighting a team of super villains and the strongest thing Earth has ever seen, and we won. If it wasn't for you, we'd probably all be dead," his friend attempted.

"We won?" he questioned, just beginning to think about the battle that had occurred, the sight of the lifeless looking Kori having stolen his attention from anything and everything else. "How? What happened? The spear didn't work."

"Raven," Wally shrugged. "She did some magic shit and made him just disappear. Over heard her tell Gar she sent him to another dimension, but it took her awhile to build up the power. Didn't even know she could do that, but I'm totally cool with it. It saved our asses.."

Dick didn't know she could do that either. In fact, he really didn't know what she was capable of. It seemed like she had a new ability every day. He wanted to be angry with her for not doing it sooner and potentially saving Kori, but he supposed he should be thankful to her. After all, she did save the rest of the team, and what more could he ask than that? "What about the league?"

"We're here," came a deep voice from the doorway that sounded like a certain Kryptonian, and both Dick and Wally turned to see Batman and Superman in the doorway, the rest of the League having gone to either check on the Titans or observe the damage Mount Justice had taken in the battle.

Batman stepped forward, his eyes not wavering from Dick for even a second. "You're awake."

Dick, with the assistance of Wally made it to his feet, cinching his abdomen in pain the entire time. "Luckily," he glanced at Kori. "All of us can't say the same."

Batman observed the unconscious Tameranian girl for a long moment, seeing that she seemed on the verge of death. Batman honestly didn't know a ton about Dick's personal life, but he did notice that he and the Tameranian had become quite close recently, also the look in his son's eyes told him more than words possibly ever could. The worry, the sadness, the fear, the clear feeling of impending loss as if he was preparing for her to die even though he wouldn't admit it to himself or anyone else for that matter. Batman knew the look quite well. He had the same one on his face the night his parents were shot in that back ally and he had to stand there helplessly and watch them take their last few gasping breaths before finally giving up, leaving him to look on in horror, his life changed forever.

Dick bowed his head and closed his eyes, feeling tears beginning to form in his ice blue orbs as he thought about the possibility of loosing her, but he refused to cry in front of Bruce. He wouldn't. Suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder, and looking up her was surprised to find it was father, now without his cowl, staring at him face to face, eye to eye. No words were spoken. There was nothing the Dark Knight could say, but the understanding and rare softness in his eyes was enough to make Dick lose what little control he had over himself.

Without another thought, Dick's head fell on Bruce's shoulder and the Dark Knight wrapped one arm around him as his son finally broke down. This is Bruce knew to do. Comfort him the best he could and hope Kori pulled through. Otherwise, he knew Dick would be destroyed.

* * *

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Sunday, October 27th - 4:00 AM**

 **Mount Justice**

Dick sat there in the medical room, it now almost morning. The Brotherhood had been transported to one of the Justice League's far more secure holding facilities to be interrogated and eventually imprisoned, so most of the Titans headed off to stay at either Donna, Wally, Roy, or Kal's home, while others stayed with their mentors until other sleeping arrangements could be made for the large group.

In fact, the only ones who stayed behind were Gar, Raven, and of course Dick. Raven had to stay just in case Kori needed to be stabilized during the night, and Gar decided to hang out with her there just for the purpose of keeping her company. Both of them were currently asleep on one of the hospital beds, Raven laying on her back, shifting oddly at times as if she were having a nightmare, and Gar on her stomach in squirrel form, but Dick just couldn't sleep. He couldn't take his eyes off of her. Not ever since his breakdown in front of Bruce earlier, who had practically begged him to come back to Wayne Manor and rest, but Dick just couldn't go.

Instead, he sat there on the edge of her bed, stroking his hands through her hair, while his other other one clenched her hand in his own. He glanced at Gar and Raven, finding both of them in a deep sleep, exhausted from the long day, before refocusing on her. "You know, now that I think back to the last few months, everything just seems so... insane, I guess is the word I am looking for," he whispered to her, his hands still running through her hair. I mean, what are the odds that you would land on this tiny planet out of all the others in galaxy?"

A sad, laugh escaped him. "It's almost enough to make you believe in fate, huh? I mean, when you first got here, and were beating the hell out of us, I certainly didn't think you would end up staying here, let we would become friends... or whatever we are... or were before all of this. You have probably figured this out now, but Earth guys, especially me, can act really stupid at times, when they get real feelings for a girl."

He paused, gathering his many scattered thoughts before continuing. "I've experienced a lot of loss in my life. It's a feeling I don't like, and I guess I was afraid that one day I'd wake up and you would gone for whatever reason, leaving me to pick up the pieces of my heart, so I did everything I could to shut you out, to not fall for you... but yet, here I am, completely in love with you and staring down at you barely hanging on to your life."

His voice became weak and tears once again began to drip from his eyes like droplets of melted ice falling from a glacier. "I have so many regrets. I should... I shouldn't have ran from my feelings, I should have talked to you, told you how I felt. I shouldn't have sent you to take out Doomsday. "How could I be so fucking stupid?" He buried his face in her stomach, clenching the blanket draped over her as if his life depended on it. "Now I could lose you just like I feared and it's my fault."

His body began to shake roughly as he cried. "It's all my fault," he repeated.

Suddenly he felt a cold hand slowly slide up his arm to his back and a soft, weak voice whisper just loud enough for him to hear it."It is not your fault."

He knew that voice, and knew it quite well at that. His head shot up, finding Kori's dim green eyes now barely open and looking up at him. He stared in complete shock for a long moment, unable to form a rational thought. "Kori!" he eventually exclaimed, causing both Raven and Gar to stir awake. "You're awake!"

She nodded slowly, barely able to move. "Yes... is everyone okay? What happened? Are you okay?"

He smiled. Freshly off her deathbed and immediately concerned with his and everyone else's safety. Just one of the many reasons he had fallen for her in the first place. "Everyone is fine. Doomsday is gone. We won." He decided to hold off on telling her about how he nearly was killed in an attempt to save her. He shook his head as if to make sure this was actually happening. "I can't believe you're awake. I was so scared I was going to lose. I am so sorry for every dumb thing I did. I was just..."

She smiled and placed her finger on his lips to silence him. "I heard you the first time."

Dick paused, his cheeks becoming slightly flushed in embarrassment. "Um... how much did you hear exactly?" he questioned, not sure at exactly which point she regained consciousness.

A soft giggle escaped her. "Enough to know you should kiss me... if you truly mean what you said."

He stared into her eyes and her into his. "I meant every word." There would be no more running, no more trying to hide these feelings. He now knew, no matter how high he built his wall, he still couldn't escape his love for her, and he was no longer going to try. There was no point. Cupping her cheek in one of his hands, he leaned down and seemingly after an endless amount of foreplay, their lips finally met in a soft, warm kiss. Her arm draped around his neck, pulling him in closer and deepening it, their heads tilting slightly to the side.

When they finally broke away, she leaned up in bed slightly, just enough to place her forehead against his. "Just so you are aware, I love you too. Now please, no more being stupid as you say."

He laughed. "I'll certainly do my best not to."

Over where Raven and Gar lied, awkwardly looking on at the scene in front of them, Raven raised her head enough to make eye contact with the green squirrel on her lap. "And all it took was them both almost dying," she muttered. The green squirrel blinked twice before crawling up her body and tucking himself in between he shoulder and her neck then going straight back to sleep, her following suit, despite the things that were going on in her subconscious at the moment.

* * *

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Sunday, November 3rd - 2:00 PM**

 **The Watch Tower**

The Titans all sat around the table at a large conference room at the Watch Tower, the core members of the Justice League standing in front of them. It had been a week since the attacks by the Brotherhood and quiet a lot had happened during that time frame. For one Dick and Kori had become more of a 'thing' then they ever were before, something both of them were very happy about. Though there was no discussion as of yet about an official title to their relationship, the fact that Nightwing was currently rubbing Starfire's leg under the table and would openly kiss her in front of the entire group was a pretty good indication that things were getting pretty serious even though things were being taken slowly for the time being. Both were quite aware that the other loved them, and that was enough for now.

Besides the relationship status of the hero couple, the entire Brotherhood had been incarcerated for the time being, and the Titans had moved into a rather large penthouse for the time being. The property was owned by Bruce Wayne, but no one needed to know that. Besides, it was temporary. In fact, living arrangements was the very reason they were brought were asked to come there that day... to an extent anyway.

Batman took a step forward, preparing to speak. "A few months ago, we started Project Titan, with little idea how it would turn out. The original intention was to prepare a team young heroes to one day be able to defend this planet against any and all threats, but I think it's safe to say that you all have past all expectations that we had for you."

Superman was the next to speak. "In just the past few months, under the leadership of Nightwing, you all have solidified yourself as not just a group of heroes, but one team, a family even. You have overcame obstacles far outside of what we expected you too, even defeating Doomsday and the Brotherhood when the Justice League had been captured."

Wonder Woman took her place in the middle of the two male heroes. "And it is because of that reason, and many more, that we believe you should no longer work under the league, but with us, until it is your time to replace us. We no longer believe that the Titans should be in the shadows. In fact, we think you all should be a beacon, not only to show young meta humans to show them that there is a place to call home, but to show anyone like the Brotherhood, that if you want a fight, it's not only the league you will have to deal with, and that is why, this will be your new home and the headquarters of the Titans." She pressed a red button on the remote on the table, and suddenly the blank projector screen just behind the league turned on, revealing concept art for a huge 'T' shaped tower, causing most of the group to look on in awe.

Batman once again took over. "This is Titan's Tower. Construction will start immediately just off the coast of Las Angeles. It will have state of the art technology, including an electromagnetic force field to prevent any attacks on it, a high tech security system, zeta tubes to transport you to the Watch Tower in if ever needed, a crime scanner that covers the entire globe."

"Also, there is fun stuff too," Superman added, not wanting to focus only on hero things. "Each of you will have your own room, there will be a common room that is triple the size of the one you had at Mount Justice, and even a game room."

"Any questions?" Batman asked, glancing over the group.

"Cool," was all both Beast Boy and the Flash could utter.

* * *

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Saturday, November 9th - 7:00 PM**

 **Gotham Pear**

Dick and Kori sat on the edge of one of Gotham's pear, staring out into the water, the setting sun slowly dipping below it's waves. Kori pulled her purple jacket closer as she leaned her head on Dick's shoulder as he wrapped his arm around her waist to pull her closer. "So, what comes next?" she asked.

"I don't know," he replied, glancing down at her. "But whatever it is. We'll face it together. All of us." With that he kissed her, her passionately returning it.

Their bond was indeed strong, and it would have to be in order for them to have any chance to survive the horrible evil that was just beyond the horizon line and approaching ever so much closer with each passing day...

 **End Of Arch One**

* * *

 **Well, there you have it. Everything is okay for the moment. The Titans are getting closer to the version we all know and love, Kori and Dick are happy, and the team is closer than ever, but all this will be challenged in Arch Two. While Arch One focused on relationship building and the team forming, Arch Two will be more about the eternal battle of good and evil and feature characters that some DC fans may not even know. Care to guess who? If so leave it in the review!**


	20. Chapter 20

**Beginning of Arch Two**

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Monday, January 1st - 12:00 AM**

 **...**

 _"So, in your own words, tell us what happened in yesterday's events," Superman instructed her._

 _She adjusted nervously in her seat in front of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, who had asked her to come in to get her side of the story, them trying to get the full picture on what exactly had occurred just hours earlier. "Well, basically what you have already heard from everyone else. The Brotherhood and Doomsday attacked us. We fought them. Starfire tried to take him out with the spear, but he was able to counter before she could get away. Nightwing saved her, but Doomsday slashed him in the process. I managed to gather enough power at the last second to send him away before he got to the rest of us."_

 _"When you say "sent him away," what do you mean by that?" Wonder Woman asked._

 _"I sent him to another dimension," she vaguely responded._

 _Batman, who had been listening and observing finally spoke up. "Explain to us what a dimension is. None of us have much experience dealing with such things."_

 _"A dimension is another realm basically. This universe we live in is one dimension, but there are countless more. Some are alternate realities where different versions of yourselves exist, and some hold beings that have nothing to do with humans what so ever. Most, however, are empty pockets of nothingness. That is where I sent Doomsday," she lied. "One of those empty pockets." Before she had a chance to listen to them respond her head began to ache and a very familiar voice began to echo through the inner most portions of her mind. Trigon._

 _"Why do you lie to them, my daughter?" the evil being laughed. "Why not tell them the truth? Are you afraid they will lock you away like a monster? It does not matter what they do. I am coming no matter what."_

 _She did her best to act like she didn't hear anything, but it must have been obvious that something was wrong with her, because Superman immediately questioned her. "Are you okay?"_

 _"Fine. I'm fine. Just a headache. Yesterday took a lot out of me," she dismissed._

 _Superman nodded before continuing. "Okay. My next question is, how exactly did you send it to another dimension? I mean, what exactly are you capable of? How did you develop theses powers?"_

 _"I was born with them. I never met either of my parents. I was an orphan, so I have no idea if they are genetic." she once again lied. "I'm not even completely sure what I can do yet. I just kind of figure it out as I go."_

 _"Never met either of your parents?" the menacing voice of her father antagonized. "Awe, tell me you not ashamed of me and your dear old dead mother after all the power we gave you."_

 _Raven gave her head a slight shake to attempt to clear her mind of her father's voice. As a young girl, she had known nothing of her father or who he was, only her mother, a human named Arella. Arella, at the age of seventeen, had gotten involved with the occult, who was hell bent on bringing the mythical demon, Trigon to Earth as told would pass in an ancient prophecy. She was used in the ritual to summon him, and to the surprise of everyone, it actually worked._

 _Trigon indeed did appear, but not in his true form however. He would need far more power than that in order to do so. Instead, he appeared in the form of a handsome man, irresistible to all women. Arellla, who was young and naive, knowing very little of his evil, was no exception. He seduced her with his odd powers of temptation shortly after the ritual, and sure enough, Arella became pregnant with a daughter that very day._

 _Needless to say, that was exactly what Trigon wanted to happen. He vanished the next morning, returning to hell until the prophecy was fulfilled and he could return to destroy Earth. At first, Arella was devastated by his disappearance, but then she became aware of the prophecy. One day her daughter would grow powerful enough to become a portal for Trigon to get to Earth in his true form, allowing him to destroy it and everything on it. With that knowledge, Arella attempted to kill herself and the baby by overdosing on pills in a back ally, but instead she was saved by an Azerathian priest, who took her to Azerath, a spiritual city located in between dimensions, somewhere Trigon couldn't even find them._

 _Arella gave birth to the half demon, half human baby, Raven, months later, and the plan was that her and the newborn would live out their lives there, learning the ways of the Azerathians, save from the baby's father, but things didn't go as planned. As Raven grew older she became more powerful. By the age of ten she began to be able to search the inner most portions of her mind, and that's were she found him. Her father, Trigon, appearing just as human to her as her mother did._

 _She had always been so curious about her father, but her mother would never talk about him. He seemed friendly. He told her how long he had been waiting to meet her, how much he loved her, how he wanted to be a family again. Just him, her, and her mother, and that could happen. All she had to do was use her powers to help him get there. She fell for it. Concentrating hard, she opened the dimensional rift to allow him through, but what appeared, was nothing like the man she had seen in her head. An eighty foot red demon with four glowing red eyes and long white hair stepped through the portal, an evil grin on his face. This was Trigon? Her father? It couldn't be... could it?_

 _The monster glanced down at her as the Azrathians around the city began to scream in horror and attempt to flee, but there was nowhere they could go, nowhere they could hide. "Thank you, my daughter," he laughed. "I've been waiting on this a long time." Rearing back, he fired some form of heat laser from all for of his eyes, setting the entire city on fire in the process, and killing nearly everyone just like that, their bodies turning to ash almost instantly. Raven had no idea where her mother was, but was fairly sure she had died like everyone else._

 _In a panicked fear, she did the only thing she could think to do. Run. Using what was left of her power, she teleported herself to Earth. Trigon made no attempt to stop her. It was exactly what he wanted her to do._

 _Over the next five years, she roamed the streets of New York City, Gotham, and Metropolis completely alone, too afraid to get near anyone. Her father was constantly in her mind, driving her insane with his taunts about her dead mother and how she screamed in pain when she died. It was horribly heartbreaking._

 _Eventually she learned to build a wall to block him from entering her mind, a wall that was taken down when she asked him to borrow power. She knew one day he would get through her defenses, which is why she originally went to the league in order to get help, but she couldn't bring herself to tell them the truth about what would one day come. Instead, she decided it would just be best to get close to them for the time being, which was why she joined the Titans in the first place._

 _Superman glanced between Batman and Superman before returning his attention to Raven. "Well, I think that's all we really have for you. Thank you for your time. Go get some rest and we will call you if we need you for anything else."_

 _She nodded and stood from the table before heading out of the conference room of the Watch Tower, but as she made it to the hallway her father's voice spoke in her mind louder than ever. "I am coming, my daughter. It's inevitable. Stop resisting and let me through. None of your friends can stop me. No one can stop me. I am the most powerful being in existence. If you let me through now, I will make all of their deaths quick, but the longer I am forced to wait the more torture they will receive. Now, let me through!" he screamed so loud she dropped to floor clenching her head._

Screaming in fear, she rocketed up in her bed, having dreamed the events of the day after the Brotherhood's invasion. Panting heavily, she wiped the sweat from her forehead just in time for Gar to bust through her door, his hair a mess and wearing nothing but a pear of white boxers with hearts on them. "Rae, are you okay?" he asked her hurriedly. His room was right across the hall from hers at their temporary penthouse home, so her screaming was more than enough to stir him awake. In fact, it scared the hell out of him.

"Yeah," she responded still breathing heavily. "Just a nightmare."

He walked over to her bed and took a seat on the side of it. "Oh, okay. Want to talk about it?"

Raven shook her head. "No. Just something stupid."

He frowned slightly. She had been acting super weird lately. Quieter and more withdrawn than usual, staying locked in her room most of the day. It was like she was always distracted, lost in her thoughts and she had been getting these horrible headaches... at least, that's what he thought. If he only knew the truth. "Okay, if you say so." He yawned and stretched out his arms before standing. "I'll be across the hall if you need anything."

Raven watched his retreating form heading toward the door, but something inside of her caused her to stop him. "Gar, wait!"

He turned back around with a raised eyebrow. "Yeah?"

She looked down, up, and the far wall. Pretty much everywhere except at him. "Can you maybe... stay here tonight?" It wasn't something she was comfortable with asking, but something about him comforted her. He made her feel okay, even with everything that was happening and was going to happen.

He was surprised by the request, but was eager to accept the offer. "Um, yeah. Absolutely." He walked over to the bed and lifted the blanket, about to crawl under it when she stopped him. "In animal form," she instructed with a mock frown. She didn't know what the difference was, it was still him after all, but she was a little scared to sleep next to his human form. It seemed sensual and romantic. Two things she had no experience with... and even if she wanted that somewhere inside of her, now wasn't the time.

He smiled and sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. "Right." With that, he transformed into a cat and jumped up on the bed, spinning around twice before lying down and nuzzling into her side.

She lied down beside him and closed her eyes, petting his head even though she was aware of how weird it was. "Stop purring," was the last thing she said before falling asleep. There were no nightmares the rest of the night.

* * *

3rd Person POV

Thurseday, January 4th - 2:00 PM

Dick's Apartment

"Give it to me," Dick demanded, glaring at her from across his living room.

"This you mean?" Kori taunted, waving his Nightwing mask around, a challenging smirk on her face. "What are you going to do if I do not?"

He moved his head side to side, cracking his neck with each motion. "Take it."

She lifted slightly off the ground, his shirt that she was wearing, dangling to her mid thigh as she did. "Come try."

"Gladly." With that he charged toward her, using his couch to launch himself into the air, heading straight for her.

She playfully shrieked and flew to the right to avoid the attack, but Dick, being the athletic freak of nature that he clearly was, spring boarded off his living room door, sending him flying off right behind. With a masterful tackle, he wrapped his arms around her waist in mid air, knocking them both down to the floor in the process. The duo rolled across ground, bumping into the couch and the entertainment center as they battled for dominance. Eventually, Kori used her far superior strength to end up on top and pin him down, but Dick was a master of Jujitsu, and managed to collapse her right arm and buck his hips, enabling him to roll her and gain the dominant position.

She was about to force him back onto his back, but before she had the chance to, Dick took her lips in his own in a passionate kiss, causing her to lose all train of thought. The mask, held tightly in Kori's hand, dropped to the ground, no longer caring about the keep away game she had instigated.

Her hands snaked around her boyfriend's neck, pulling him closer, deepening the kiss, and they may have escalated much further if Wally didn't come busting through the front door of Dick's apartment before they had a chance to. "Dick we have a prob... Oh... ew," he paused, observing the couple who had clearly been in a full fledged make out session beforehand. "You guys are nasty... but um, back on point. Gather the Titans. The league is occupied and there are three... um, well shadow things I guess you could call them attacking south Las Angeles."

"Shadow things?" Dick repeated confusedly, standing to his feet and pulling Kori up along with him.

"Yup," Wally nodded, extending out his phone to the Titan's leader, which was playing a news broadcast covering the event. Dick watched what could only be described as three pitch black monsters, each having four glowing red eyes, terrorizing Las Angeles, flipping cars, destroying buildings, and attacking fleeing citizens. They were fast and moved in an impossible way, solid one moment, but moving as if they were a shadow the next, disappearing for a brief second only to appear somewhere else or phasing straight through solid objects. What the hell were they?

Dick quickly reached into his gym short's pocket, pulling out a black communicator with a gold 'T' on the front of it. Each Titan was issued one so that they could get in touch with each other in case of an emergency. It was essential now that they were more spread out than before, no longer being trapped in the confines of Mount Justice for their training. "Attention on the net. Calling all Titans. We have an emergency in south Las Angeles. Three creatures of unknown origin are attacking the city. I'm sending the coordinates now."

With that done, Dick turned his attention to Wally and Kori, a serious expression on his face. "Let's go."

* * *

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Thursday, January 4th - 2:05 PM**

 **Gotham**

Gar was walking down the streets of Gotham, listening to his music echoing from the headphones in his green pointy ears as he did. He had just left the arcade and was on his way to meet Vic, Jaime, and Virgil at a nearby pizza place for guy time, while most of the girls spent time at Gotham's incredibly large mall.

He wasn't paying much attention when he rounded the corner of one of the buildings, which was probably why he crashed directly into someone, causing them both to stumble back a bit and managing to knock the headphones out of his ear. At first he was a little upset that someone had bumped into him, but when he raised his head to see who it was, all of his anger just faded away. It was a girl, slightly taller than him, and she had ocean blue eyes and long blonde hair that fell almost to her ass. Besides those things, she also had the most beautiful face he had seen on any girl in his entire life. She had to be an actress, maybe a model even. All he knew was normal girls didn't look like she did.

"Oh, I'm sorry, dude," he exclaimed. "I mean, not dude. You're clearly not a dude. I mean... I'm just going to stop now," he quieted himself.

A slight laugh escaped her. "No man, you're cool," she answered in a very hippie like voice as she looked him over. "Hey, you're the animal guy right? The one who can change into stuff?"

The more missions the Titans went on, the more people started to recognize him. He didn't even bother wearing his ring anymore. Mostly because he really wasn't ashamed of his appearance anymore, and also he kind of liked the attention he got when he was out. "Yeah," he smiled sheepishly. "Beast Boy is what they call me."

"Fitting," she laughed. "I'm Terra by the way," she introduced herself, extending out her hand to him, which he shook a little shyly. "This is actually really cool. I never met a hero before. The stuff you guys do is awesome."

He may have been blushing at this point. "It's no big deal."

"Are you kidding me? I saw on the news where you guys took down some guys called the Brotherhood and that Doomsday monster? Do you know how amazing that it?" She looked away briefly before returning her attention to him. "I honestly think it's sexy for a guy to be so brave and courageous to put his life on the line like that."

Yep, he was definitely blushing. "It's really not that awesome... but I mean, if you think it's that cool... maybe, if you're free, we could..." Before he could finish his studdering sentence, the communicator in his pocket went off. "Perfect timing," he sarcastically muttered under his breath before pulling it out and hearing the order Dick had given.

Seeing how serious the situation was, he turned his attention back to the blonde girl. "It was really nice meeting you Terra, but I have to go. Duty calls." With that, he shifted into a green falcon and jetted into the air, leaving the blonde girl to look on in apparent wonder.

* * *

 **Well, the ground work has been laid for Arch Two. You guys ready? Also, I'm going to make a snapchat specifically for fanfiction, and it will serve to update you on chapter progressions, and help me keep in touch with all of my readers, so if you have a snap and that's sounds good comment your snap name and I will add you. Review!**


	21. Chapter 21

**Here you guys are! So, like I mentioned last chapter, I made a Snapchat for my writing. I'l be giving chapter progression updates through there as well as looks into my day to day army and personal life. My snap name is of course McKnight2.0 so add me! Thanks for the person who suggested the idea! You know who you are! Enjoy the chapter guys!**

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Thursday, January 4th - 2:30 PM**

 **South Las Angeles**

* * *

Nightwing's black stealth jet swooped low, only twenty or so feet above the Las Angeles streets, and the black and blue clad hero flipped from the ship's hatch, landing smoothly on the ground as the auto piloted jet continued on, setting itself down on a nearby roof.

Nightwing observed the now vacant, ghost town looking city streets, seeing store windows smashed in and cars tipped over, their alarms still sounding off in annoying fashion. These things, whatever they were, certainly knew how to make an entrance. A red streak, otherwise known as the Flash, came zipping up to his side, coming to a skidding stop just as Starfire landed on the opposite side of her boyfriend. Only seconds afterward, the rest of the team arrived in the Titan's jet, it landing on the building that Nightwing's had.

As the Titans made their way over to the other three heroes, Nightwing ushered them to hurry, so he could give them a more detailed briefing of the situation and formulate a plan before they went to hunt down the creatures, but before any of that could happen, a dark mist, one thicker than any Gotham smog he had ever seen, began to float toward them, seemingly appearing from nowhere. As the dark grey gas neared it began to take form, three separate almost humanoid ones in fact.

Nightwing raised his hand to halt his gathering teammates. "Get ready, guys."

Three sets of four glowing red eyes appeared in the smog and slowly they took solid form, revealing themselves to the team. There they stood, three creatures darker than the night sky with evil grins and long, slender, dangling arms that had claws of complete blackness at the end of them.

In the back, behind the rest of the team, Raven swallowed. It was a good things her cloak hid her face, otherwise the rest of the team would have surely seen the astonishment on her face. The eyes, they had given it away. They were clearly demons sent by her father. Suddenly, she could hear his voice in her head. "What's wrong, my daughter?" he laughed. "Are you telling me you do not recognize your own brothers?"

"Brothers? That's impossible," she thought to herself.

"I am telling no lie," the demon king responded, able to hear her every thought. "These are my three sons of darkness. I do not have enough power to allow myself to get to Earth, but I can get them through, and unless you agree to summon me, they will kill all of your friends one by one, while you are forced to sit by and watch."

"I can't let you in! I want!" she snapped in her mind.

"Then they will die just like your mother!" Trigon retorted in a rage.

Suddenly the beings of darkness charged at the team. Nightwing and the rest of the group were prepared to defend against them, but somehow all three simply vanished, sinking into the ground, before appearing once again directly behind the Titans. The monsters went straight for Superboy, Blue Beetle, and Cyborg, jumping on their backs and taking them to the ground. The demons clawed at them, but as the rest of the team rushed to fight them off, they once again vanished, fading out of existence in the blink of an eye

Nightwing eyes jetted from point to point, drawing his bow staff as he carefully scanned the area, but all of a sudden he felt something grab his shoulders and with incredible force sling him backwards as if he were a child's doll. As he flew through the air he could see one of the demons disappearing right where he had previously been standing, making it clear that one had been the culprit. He attempted to flip in the air in order to land on his feet, but before he could, one of the pitch black monsters, most likely the same on who had thrown him, appeared right below him, catching him in mid air before power bombing him into the concrete below, effectively knocking all the air from his lungs and busting open the back of his head.

"Nightwing!" Starfire screamed and was about to jet toward him in an attempt to save him from the demon, which still lingered over him, but when she attempted to take off, she realized that something was preventing her from moving. Looking down, she saw two black hands, coming straight from the concrete below, holding her around her ankles.

In a panic she fired her eye beams down at the hands, but before the scorching green energy could make contact the demon's hands sunk back into the earth below, causing her beams to only hit her own self. "Shit!" she screamed out in pain before gasping and covering her mouth, knowing that was a bad word. It looked like she had picked up some bad habits in her time on Earth.

Superboy, sweat dripping down his face and his muscles pulsing, swung madly at one of the demons, which seemingly made a game of appearing in front of the Kryptonian teen, only to vanish right before his fists had any chance at making contact. The demon eventually became bored with the game apparently, and appeared behind Superboy this time. Using it's demonic strength, it tossed him into Red Arrow and Artemis who were continuously trying and failing to hit the creatures, them not having nearly enough time to get a shot off on them before they once again vanished.

As trio fell to the ground roughly, the Flash used his speed to finally land a hit on one of the creatures, knocking it back and two the ground before it simply faded out like a shadow, however, he failed to notice that another one had sunk under him. Raising it's hands out of the ground, it tripped the speedster, causing him to fall and roll with such velocity that he went flying through a store window before coming to a sliding stop inside of the building, pieces of glass now protruding from his skin. "Ouch," he cringed as laid on the floor of what appeared to be a laundry mat.

Nightwing, who had finally made it back to his feet, was watching the chaos unfold, trying to find away to stop them, despite the pounding headache he had. Whatever they were, they were kicking their asses badly and they couldn't hold up much longer. He had to think. He watched the way they moved, how they could simply vanish before reappearing somewhere else. It was like they were made of pure energy, but if that were true that would mean they weren't just defying physics and simply teleporting, they were jumping from one magnetic field to the next. He had an idea.

Nightwing looked over at Raven. "Raven, put a barrier around us," he ordered.

"It won't help," she called back. "They can still vanish and reappear in and out of it." Technically, Raven could do the same thing the demons were doing, but just not as fast. A draw back of only being half demon.

"Just trust me," he stated.

She wasn't sure what he was up to, but she did as told and raised a huge barrier around the entire team. The demons didn't seem to care and continued to kick the Titan's asses in the most absolutely mischievous ways possible, which was exactly what Nightwing wanted. With them distracted he turned to Static. "Can you magnetize the force field?"

"Yeah, but..."

"Just do it ," Nightwing demanded. What was up with all these questions? Just listen to the man!

Seeing Nightwing meant business, he nodded and fired an electric pulse at the barrier, causing the black energy to start to spark. Nightwing wasn't sure it would work, but when Superboy finally managed to land one hell of a hay-maker punch on one of the demons, sending it flying into the force field, where bounced off of it like a bird crashing into a window, he assumed it did.

The demons all glanced at each other, seemingly realizing they could no longer escape. It was probably the biggest oh shit moment they had ever experienced. The Titans, all realizing they could no longer flee, began to smirk at each other. It was payback time. Cyborg and Blue Beetle fired their cannons. Starfire berated them with Starbolts from above while Superboy practically cooked them alive with his heat vision. Nightwing, specifically targeted the one who had knocked the wind out of him, and began to give it the ass whooping of a life time. He may not have been to actually become a shadow like them, but for the demon, it certainly felt like fighting one, it unable to land a hit without its teleporting powers.

Within moments all three of the creatures of darkness laid motionless on the ground, but before they could round them up, something very odd happened. Simultaneously, they all bursted into flames, managing to force the team to move back, covering their faces from the unbelievable heat as a result.

Just as suddenly as the flame had appeared it was gone, no trail of smoke to be seen, and even stranger, the bodies of the demons were also vacant from where they were just seconds beforehand.

"This is not the last you have seen of your brothers, my daughter," Trigon echoed in Raven's head, causing her to frown under he cloak. "They will come again. Next time they won't be alone. I suggest you heed my warning."

As the force field dropped, the Flash looked around at the rest of the bruised and battered team, pulling yet another piece of glass out of his arm before tossing it to the side. "Well, that happened. Anyone want pizza? It's on Nightwing."

Nightwing just frowned at his friend, but in the back of his mind he knew something definitely wasn't right, and he needed to figure out what it was and figure it out fast.

* * *

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Friday, January 5th - 1:00 AM**

 **Dick's Apartment**

The brightness of the computer screen in front of him caused his eyes to squint narrowly as he read over file after file, document after document, looking for anything to help him understand what those creatures were that they had fought earlier that day. He had ruled out anything organic, after all, organic things didn't move the way those creatures did, and when he consulted Hal Jordan about the possibility of them being some form of alien race, the Green Lantern said that he knew nothing even similar to that existing, so basically he was at a dead end.

Leaning back in his chair he sighed and covered his eyes with his forearms, only vaguely aware of the sound of Kori's soft snoring coming from his living room couch not far behind. He glanced over his bare shoulder, finding her laying with her head hanging off of the couch cushion and her feet hooked over the back of the frame. He guessed she had passed out at some point, although how she slept in that position, he had no clue. She was weird was the only explanation he could give himself at this point.

It was one in the morning and he had been sitting there, buried in his computer screen for four hours at least, so he didn't blame her for going to sleep. He knew she must have been exhausted, and it wasn't like this was her first time sleeping there, far from it in fact. She slept either on his couch or in his bed quite often. Not because they were up to anything mischievous, but because they genuinely enjoyed being around each other and it was just easier for her to pass out there, rather than to go to the pent house only to return the next morning. They were both mature adults, that could control themselves, so there was no harm in it.

He ran his hands through his messy black hair as he thought about the details of the creatures. How they moved. How they looked. Their pitch black color, darker than the deepest depths of space. Their long dangling arms that were so slender that it was scary. Those demonic red eyes. ...Wait. Maybe that was it. Maybe they were demons or some form of spiritual beings. Dick was not religious in the least. To be honest he didn't even believe in God or any holy entity for that matter, but he had exhausted all the other options he could think of and Batman had always taught him to be as thorough as possible when it came to any potential leads, so as unlikely as his very rational brain believed it to be, he decided to give it a shot.

Sitting up, he typed in the first thing that came to mind. 'Types of demons.' The first thing to pop up was a website link which belonged to the occult and in it were pictures and descriptions of all the different types of demonic entities that they believed to exist. It was pretty creepy to look at to say the least.

Dick scrolled down and read description after description for at least an hour, but could find nothing that matched the creatures he had seen that day. He was about to just call it quits for the night and go lay beside Kori on the couch, but something inside of him, maybe intuition or maybe something else, told him to keep going just a little longer, and sure enough he scrolled just a bit farther and that's when he saw it... or rather him.

It wasn't the creatures of darkness that he had seen earlier that day, but rather it was a much larger red demon with giant white horns and flowing grey hair. None of that would have even caught his attention if it weren't for one other unbelievable characteristic though. Four glowing red eyes, that looked exactly like the ones on the other creatures. It could simply have been a coincident, but inside, he just knew it was more than that.

He looked down at the the name of the demon. Trigon, the demon king.

* * *

 **3rd Person POV**

 **Saturday, January 5th - 1:00 AM**

 **Gotham**

Gar walked down the streets of Gotham, enjoying his free time. He learned to appreciate it a lot more since he became a Titan. With all the training, missions, and being attacked it seemingly every other day, it was very limited at times. Since everyone else had their own things going on that particular day, he decided he would go out by himself for awhile and his first stop was to get lunch as his favorite pizza place.

Whistling as we walked through the door, he walked up to the counter and ordered a large vegetarian pizza and went to take a seat at an empty booth while he waited for it to be prepared. He scrolled down his Facebook timeline, wondering how Dick got like three thousand likes on a single selfie and watching funny cat videos, which had him so distracted that he barely noticed when footsteps came walking up to his table. "You had one large vegetarian pizza?"

"Yeah, that's..." he paused when he looked up seeing the very same blonde that he had met on the previous day. "Terra? You work here?"

She laughed in a slightly awkward fashion. "Yeah man, I started yesterday."

"Cool," was all he could say as he observed her beauty, which stood out even in her red and white 1950's style store uniform.

Terra glanced at her management, seeing they were paying no attention to her, and they really weren't too busy, so she decided to take a seat across from Gar. "So, I saw you guys on the news last night. What were those things you were fighting?"

Gar shrugged as he took a slice of his pizza. "Don't know. Nightwing is working on that I think. We have a meeting later today, so we might find out something then. He's pretty good with figuring things out."

Terra nodded, a hard to read expression on her face. "He seems like he would be." She seemed to refocus on Gar and her normal smile reappeared on her face. "Hey, I don't know what time your meeting thing is, but I get off in an hour if you want to hangout or something."

Gar was caught off guard by the request, even to the extent that he quit chewing the large amount of pizza he had stuffed into his mouth. He wasn't used to girls actually asking to hang out with him. In the past it had been the other way around and typically he got rejected. Green skin, point ears, and fangs weren't exactly the hottest features one could have. He swallowed roughly, nearly choking himself in the process. "You want to hang out with me?"

She laughed. "Yeah, why wouldn't I? You're awesome! Who else can say they get to hangout with a super hero?"

Gar began to blush. When he heard the term super hero, he thought of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, even his teammate, Nightwing. Legends were told about the them. They were like gods. Could someone actually be putting him in the same boat with names like that? He was flattered to say the least. "Cool," Gar cooed before realizing he sounded completely dazed, forcing him to catch himself. "I mean, yeah. Sounds good," he responded in his best 'cool guy' voice.

Terra smiled widely at his acceptance of her offer. "Awesome. See you in a bit," she chimed happily. With that, she stood and scampered off, Gar possible checking out her ass as she did. If hot girls were going to be hitting on him like this, becoming a Titan just might have been the best decision of his life.

* * *

P **retty good chapter I do believe, but things are going to pick up quite soon. If you haven't guessed, this Arch deals heavily with religion, well DC universe religion anyway. It's going to get dark and angsty at times. My favorite types of writing ironically. Keep up the great reviews, guys!**


End file.
